How can we resist our cousin Ron White's urgings that we talk about our Mephisto sandals! These wonderful sandals that have seen - how many? - towns and cities, battered landscapes, and towering ruins?
Our Mephistos have plodded through ruins that are wonders of the world! Cambodia: Angkor Wat - tens of gorgeous temples that gleam at sunrise and glow with pink reflection at sunset. Israel: we climbed the 250 steps of Bet She'an - to view from above the ancient city complete with amphitheatre, Greek temples, dwellings, and a magnificent cardo lined with Greek columns.
Jordan: Petra's huge boulder rocks have impressive striations caused by former earthquakes as well as remarkable buildings of Lost Ark fame which are carved into the rose rockface.
Our sandals avoided the cow poop in the old and new markets of Delhi, and jumped over the elephant and camel poop to explore the Amber Fort of Jodpur, India. They winced as they got polished and glued by a shoemaker in a tiny lane of Delhi. They trudged up the 150 stairs of the Harbour Bridge in Sydney Australia to view the gorgeous city from one of its towers. The shoes shirked our wet feet after our long, muddy trek through the hills, waterfalls, and pools of Fiji. The shoes stomped through the tunnels of Cu Chi where the Viet Cong fighters lived, fought, and hid. We explored the ancient city of Jerusalem slipping on the stone streets that overlooked excavations revealing layers of biblical civilizations.
Our Mephistos waited in a little box outside as we entered the golden Shwe Dagon Temple of Yangon, Myanmar, to walk barefoot on the marble floors that are cool in the evenings and hot during the day. They imagined themselves galloping across the huge Herodian hippodrome in Caesaria, Israel, where chariot races and gladiator challenges took place so long ago. The Mephistos tried to breathe despite being scrunched in the dry bag as they listened to the kayak paddles dip into the waters of Halong Bay in Viet Nam and down the small rapids of the Mekong River near Luang Probang, Laos. They padded through the lush terraced rice fields of Bali on a beautiful early morning walk. The wonderful battered shoes even climbed the 340 steps to allow us to peer into the active volcano at Mount Bromo, Indonesia. (We had to wear socks for that!)
Our shoes groaned up the steep hills to see the Hmong and Khammu tribes living near Luang Prabang, Laos. The shoes felt a little ashamed as they visited the zoos of Jerusalem, Singapore, and New Zealand. And they felt parched as they walked the desert sands of Palm Springs, U.S.A. in search of a roadrunner. They tiptoed through the soft grasses of Ginosar beside Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Gallilee) in Israel so we could photograph a pied kingfisher and a Hoopoe. They wondered at the huge stone floor of the Hagia Sophia church/mosque of Istanbul. They paused as they smelled the spices of Istanbul's spice market. Finally, the shoes tripped as Arieh crossed the street (against the light) in front of a streetcar in Istanbul, Turkey.
We must also mention the Magnum dark ice cream bar droppings that fell on their surface and the various beers that slopped on our toes: Kingfisher beer in India, Goldstar in Israel, Tiger in Thailand, Beer Lao in Laos, Mandalay in Myanmar, Angkor in Cambodia. And, of course, the tiny dropletss we let fall from the exquisite red wines of Australia and New Zealand which changed the colour of the leather only briefly.
We left the best for last. Our Mephistos perched under an armchair as we enjoyed the exceptional hospitality of our old and newfound friends and relatives in Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Dubai, and Israel.
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