One More Burmese Day August 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Asia, Europe, Forex, Hotels, Rail Pass, Singapore, Tour, Trails, Travel Gear, Travelling Bag, Trip , 3commentsAt five in the morning Rangoon shakes off sleep. Paraffin lamps cast pools of sputtering light on the wet streets. After a night of drizzle, the city murmurs as though sound, like the dust, has been cleared from the air by the rain. The lamps wheeze. In a café doorway a man slaps chapati dough on to a board, and stacks the rolled balls into ranks. A boy yawns and adjusts his lunghi. He oversees a water tank parked in the road. Water splashes from a faucet into a jerrican, and when it fills the boy sluggishly replaces it from a line of empty ones. A truck, far off, grinds gears and whines, coming slowly closer. (more…)
The Drums of Nefta continue… August 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Destination, Hotels, Sightseeing, Tickets, Travel Gear , 3commentsWe both met Walter a few days ago. He is a German working at a doctorate on the post-colonial development of the region. He has lived here for eight months and knows more about the town than the Neftis, who are infuriatingly vague when it comes to giving directions. He knows nothing of Brigitte Bardot’s visit but confirms that President Bourguiba used to stay at our hotel, though he now spends two months every year at the Sahara Palace.
Mercifully Walter and Marianne soon exhaust their mutual stock of Arabic and, in the silence that follows, we all become aware of a faint constant drumbeat in the medina. Walter says that it is probably a wedding but suggests that we investigate. We leave, and Marianne stays behind picking at a fruit salad. (more…)
The Drums of Nefta August 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, France, Hotels, Rail Pass, Tour, Trails, Trip , 6commentsIt is late evening and Marianne, Walter and I have just finished a large couscous washed down by several bottles of heady local wine. My companions start talking in Arabic again and I have the depressing sense of being a hick tourist fallen among real travellers. Wine- numbed and bloated, I lapse into silent recapitulation of what has brought us here.
I met Marianne on Jerba, an island claiming mythic status as the place where the Sirens held Ulysses. I too was becalmed, though the Sirens were inaudible. I would take bus trips from the island to towns in southern Tunisia but they never lasted longer than a day. Their chaos and squalor did not compare well with the pristine beauty of Jerba and, as a lone male out of season, I was prey to a horde of street hustlers. On Jerba I had made it clear that I was not in the market for anything and they left me alone. (more…)
Backpacking in Mani continue… August 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Europe, Greece, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trip, Vaccinations , 3commentsAnother memorable walk was the nine kilometres from Yerolimena to Vitheia. This is the deep Mani, almost as far south as one can go on mainland Greece. The road passes through a landscape dotted with crumbling towers, those ‘brooding castellations’ which are the most striking feature of the region. It was from their gaunt tower houses that the feuding Maniot families of the eighteenth century bombarded each other with musket, cannon and rock, while a cowed population of serfs crept from their semi-troglodyte hovels between the fusillades. (more…)
Backpacking in Mani August 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Greece, Hotels, Tickets, Tour, Vaccinations , 3commentsFive hundred drachmas for the room: the matter was soon settled. Just over £3 for a generous bed, a vine-clad balcony with a splash of bougainvillea, two lemon trees in the garden below, and a view over olives to the sea — not a bad deal. Then the old lady took me firmly by the arm and led me into the bathroom. She pointed to a large hole in the ceiling. The sight of it seemed to provoke in her a torrent of recrimination. She spoke fast, too fast for my rudimentary Greek. What was she trying to convey? ‘You can’t get a plumber these days, not for love nor money. “You simply can’t trust the workmen any more, can you?’ Together we contemplated a knotted cord dangling from the black hole. Ipárhi Fero zestó?’ I persisted tiresomely, ‘Is the water hot?”Zestó, zestó,’ she echoed shrilly, irritated by a fatuous question, and launched into another dramatic monologue with a wealth of expressive gestures. Then suddenly she was gone, leaving me to ponder along the unpredictable and intractable nature of language as a medium of communication. (more…)
Big Safari Game in the Okavango Swamp, Kalahari Desert Travel August 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Botswana, Cape Town, Europe, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, South Africa, Tanzania, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Travel Clinic, Travelling Bag, Trip, Vaccinations , 5commentsWe slid through the swamps while animals criss-crossed our path before and aft; kudu, zebra, buffalo, impala, and a herd of fifteen giraffe, splashing through the water with feet big as plates. Matata poled gracefully; he could have been punting down the Cam as his pole pushed blue and white water lilies aside. His ears were sharp as a jackal’s and he could spot the tracks of a hippo from an extraordinary distance. The lilypad sized footprints, at least one foot across, sank deep into the mud — heavy, purposeful tracks. (more…)
Big Safari Game in the Okavango Swamp, Kalahari Desert Travel August 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Botswana, Travel Clinic, Travelling Bag , 6commentsStranded in the Kalahari desert we had no water and half a packet of Marie biscuits. The bus from Francistown had broken down again and the passengers disembarked, squatting in the cumbersome shade of a baobab tree. They, like us, were shifty-eyed; there had been no rain in Botswana for four years and the lions of the Kalahari were getting hungry. In Gaborone, a week before, we had watched the mauled body of a German girl carried into the hospital. Her death reminded us of the dangers of complacency in Africa. In the shadow of the bus, a vulture wheeling overhead, I kept my eyes fixed on the bush behind us. (more…)
What Air Tickets say, what Airline Luggage can take, have you been treated differently? continue… August 29, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Airlines, Destination, Flight Schedule, Travel Gear, Travelling Bag , 3commentsBaggage/Luggage
One of the frustrations of travelling by airline is lost baggage. Very often the cause of this irritation is the lack of identification. It is often impossible to identify “incognito” baggage — no name, initials or other personal identification affixed to the airline luggage. The baggage may also be securely locked and look just like the other 2 000 pieces of airline luggage already in the “Lost Property” office!
It is always a relief when you arrive at your airline destination and your luggage shows up on the carousel. If it doesn’t appear immediately, don’t panic. The airline carrier will usually try to transport the passenger and luggage on the same flight but at times this may be impractical or impossible (for example if you are a late check-in or standby passenger). (more…)
What Air Tickets say, what Airline Luggage can take, have you been treated differently? August 29, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Airlines, Tickets, Travel Gear, Travelling Bag , 6commentsThe limitations of the airline company (carrier) in respect of passengers and their luggage. Few airline travellers realise that the carrier does not guarantee the transportation of passengers or their luggage when selling them an air ticket. In fact there is no obligation on the part of the airline carrier to transport a ticket holder or his/her luggage at all. This will serve to provide you with a little background on the conditions surrounding the sale and use of your air ticket. (more…)
Airline/ Flight Travel Jokes August 29, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Air Tickets, Airlines, Cuba, Embassy, Flight Schedule, France, Las Vegas, London, Scotland, Tour, Trip , 3commentsI took my wife to France by airline travel last year. You know how it is — you always take something with you that you don’t need.
Florida has two main industries, tourists and alligators, and they skin both of them.
Travel broadens one — so does sitting at home in an armchair.
This is a wonderful town. When I arrived here I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t speak, I had very little hair and people used to lift me from my bed — I was born here. (more…)
To the Middle of Nowhere August 26, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Airlines, Destination, Hotels, Moscow, Restaurant, Round The World, Tickets , 3commentsThe train from the Back of Beyond is about to arrive at the Middle of Nowhere. A week out of Moscow across Siberia and five time zones later you somehow land up in landlocked Mongolia.
Galloping horses, endless deserts and grassland steppes. People with faces like unworked mahogany stand around in their tunic-like costume and ill-fitting boots with turned up toes. All are heavily wrapped against searing Siberian of Genghis Khan, Marco Polo and winds which bear `living’ Buddhas. (more…)
The Pharaoh’s Curse (Wesday, Thrusday and Friday) August 26, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Airlines, Cairo, Hotels , 5commentsWEDNESDAY
Kom Ombo and Edfu, like the fitness of my charges, have been and gone, and now at Esna a few determined explorers rattle by horse- drawn carriage towards the town centre at 6am. Esna, a series of dusty streets and alleys, is still asleep, apart from the odd scavenging tat-eared dog.
The temple sits some fifty feet down in its own huge sandpit, buried for centuries until someone tripped over what turned out to be the top of a pillar. High above, in abrupt contrast, sit the comparatively recent buildings of the town, their roofs and turrets catching the early morning sun. (more…)
The Pharaoh’s Curse August 26, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Cairo, Hotels, The Nile, Tour , 5commentsMONDAY
The blastfurnace heat at Aswan jumps off the tarmac and hits us like a blow as I lead my group towards the terminal building. “Keeping the River rest to clean your teeth?” nudges Doctor Whistler, pointing to my depleted bottle of mineral water. SUDAN v “Aha, that’s right!” I smile, through gritted teeth. My head’s pounding like a sledgehammer, and my stomach feels frail. I touch my pocket for the reassuring packet of Diocalm. Tour Directors aren’t allowed the luxury of being ill. Away from Cairo HQ I’m in sole charge of ninety physicians and their wives on a pre-congress beano — four days of cruising the Nile and doing the sites. (more…)
Gypsy Serenade continue… August 26, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Paris, Tour, Trails, Trip , 3commentsThere in a tiled room in the basement the pleasure began: Gonzalo’s daughter danced for us. She was fifteen, lithe, conscious of her own body and beautiful in her art, and all the while as the spectators’ enthusiasm grew her father watched her, drinking Jerez, nodding his head and smiling.
Presently he drew me aside to suggest that if I would like to give him a certain sum his wife and daughter would go immediately and prepare a gypsy supper. He explained that their house down under the railway by the Bridge of Three Eyes had only one room, but his own eyes shone as he described the delights of a gypsy supper. (more…)
Gypsy Serenade August 26, 2008
Posted by dodo in : England, Germany, Hotels, Restaurant , 3commentsBy the time the train arrived in Madrid the Arabs had stolen my coat. I had not been long in the restaurant car: ten minutes, the length of a cognac. I was coming south from England; they were returning home from a factory in Germany.
On the way to the hotel I stopped the taxi to have a drink in a bar. Outside it was winter and raining. He was standing inside, an old brown overcoat and a white shirt buttoned without a tie, around forty. One of his sons was dancing in worn-out boots, the other singing for him, to the clapping of hands without a guitar. They looked about ten, with long hair, both so brown and handsome I could have hugged them; (more…)
London Sightseeing Pass: Westminster Palace and Abbey & St Margaret’s Church continue… August 25, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Cars, Destination, Ireland, Library, London, Museum, Rail Pass, Scotland, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trip, Wellington , 5commentsA cult developed around Edward. There were accounts of him healing the sick while he was alive, and rumours of cures at his tomb continued. In 1102 it was opened and his body found incorrupt. After a campaign lasting for decades, Edward the Confessor was canonized in 1161. His body was raised from the tomb before the high altar and replaced in a richly ornamented shrine, the key, sacred focal point of the Abbey. (more…)
London Sightseeing Pass: Westminster Palace and Abbey & St Margaret’s Church August 25, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Cars, Destination, Hotels, London, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trip , 5commentsIt is at the first sight difficult to imagine any ancient, geomantic mysteries to be present in the teeming modern metropolis that is London. There is no doubt that what may be there is well submerged both actually, beneath accretions of buildings and earth, and metaphorically, beneath layers of time. We have to look to legend, history, archaeological glimpses and the barely discernible lineaments that have survived in the present layout of streets, sites and place-names. (more…)
European Costume Flip-flops, Women and Socks August 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Europe, Hotels, Japan, London, Rail Pass, Restaurant, Tickets, Tokyo, Tour, Trip , 4commentsOnce Europeans had become accustomed to flip-flops, it wasn’t all that difficult to get used to mitten- shaped socks, each holding the big toe in its own little pocket and letting the other four doss down together. But the very first visitors to Japan assumed, from the local socks, that the Japanese had only two toes. And the Japanese, on the basis of the visitors’ socks, thought that Europeans had none. (more…)
Geomantic feature of the ancient Tower of London, Secret face of Britain’s Capital City continue… August 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Airlines, England, Europe, Hotels, London, Rail Pass, Round The World, Sightseeing, Tour, Trails, Travel Gear, Travelling Bag, Trip , 3commentsAfter a short distance, the course of the line connects with the axis of Cannon Street, passing through the former position of the London Stone. The remnants of this undoubtedly ancient feature are to be found today behind an iron grill set into the wall of the Bank of China on the north side of Cannon Street, opposite Cannon Street Tube (subway) station, more or less in the position it formerly occupied against the wall of St Swithin’s church, until that was demolished in the 1960s. Up until 1742, however, it was located on what was then the south side of Cannon Street in a position that would now be in the middle of the modern roadway, as it was subsequently widened. No one really knows the origins of the stone. (more…)
Geomantic feature of the ancient Tower of London, Secret face of Britain’s Capital City August 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Destination, France, Hotels, Ireland, London, Sightseeing, Tour, Trails , 3commentsMost people today think of the Tower as the sinister place built by William the Conqueror where prisoners were kept and tortured, and where illustrious heads rolled, including those of Sir Thomas More, Sir Walter Raleigh, Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey. Over the centuries, in addition to being such a notorious place of confinement, the Tower has served as a garrison, a palace, a zoo, a mint and an observatory. The Tower continues to house the Crown Jewels and other royal regalia, but this important spot in London’s geography goes back much further, and is referred to in the medieval Welsh texts known collectively as The Mabinogion, which record themes much older. To the Celtic Britons, the site on which the Tower stands was Bryn Gwyn, the White Mount, ‘White‘ meaning holy. The White Tower, the central keep of the site and the original part of the structure to be built, recalls this appellation. (more…)
