Quaint old roads through the land of the copper mountains October 7, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Cape Town, Hotels, Museum, Rail Pass, Tickets, Trails, Trip , 2commentsThis drive is most rewarding in the spring when the display of wildflowers is at its best, but the panoramic views over Namaqual and and the mountain passes — Spektakel Pass and the Messelpad — are memorable at any time of year. Note that two-thirds of the ‘ route is on gravel roads, and that you must take food and drink with you.
Drive north-east alongSpringbok’s Voortrekker Street and turn right towards ‘Airport/Cape Town‘, noting your kms as you turn. After 1 km turn right at the T-junction, and after a further 4,3 km turn left, noting your kms again. (more…)
A Wealth of Wildlife in a world with little Water September 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Botswana, Map, Rail Pass, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Travel Gear , 2commentsThe traveler is greeted by an extraordinarily stark, sunburned landscape. The climate ranges from dry to very dry, and periods of extreme drought can be measured by the carcasses in the dry river beds. Yet there is abundant life in the harsh environment of the Kalahari — a primeval vitality that comes as a surprise amidst the seemingly inhospitable surroundings. For those who wish to see and feel an unspoilt Africa, this is perhaps the most rewarding place to visit. Here it is stillpossible to experience the wild excitement of a lion-kill, or to witness the lightning dash of a hunting cheetah — exactly as if mankind had never appeared on the scene. (more…)
Is there any way to make Air Travel safer? September 13, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Airlines, Flight Schedule, Hotels, Travelling Bag , 3commentsSince the inception of the jet era, flying has become much safer because of innovations like computerised flight simulators, expanded radar coverage, and high-tech devices that warn pilots of such things as nearby aircraft, threatening proximity to terrain, precarious aircraft altitude or flight angle, and wind-shear conditions. The industry is continually finding new ways to make flying safer through better pilot training, better aircraft inspection and maintenance techniques, and new safety technologies. In the next century, for example, all commercial jets will use satellites to navigate and communicate their positions to air traffic controller on the ground — a tremendous advantage over ground-based navigation aids and radar that lose “sight” of planes once they fly beyond the horizon. (more…)
A Day in Narnia, a Night in Phang Nga September 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Bangkok, Hotels, Tour, Trip , 3commentsOn the village green in front of the Chinese Bhuddist temple a fairground was being erected. The skeleton of a Ferris wheel loomed; shooting galleries and hoopla stalls were being knocked together.
The purpose of the structure immediately outside the temple was not so obvious. The men hammering it together had beckoned us, beaming, inviting inspection. A raised wooden runway, carpeted with the pin-sharp points of six-inch nails hammered through from the bottom, ran out 50ft and ended in a bed of nails laid on the grass. At the foot of the bed, guyed by wire ropes, a forty-rung ladder rose vertically. The rungs were steel knives, blades up. (more…)
A Second Shufti at Jordan September 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Airlines, Damascus, Hotels, Museum, Tour , 3commentsThe Queen beat me to it — she got to Petra first! But I doubt if she had as much fun. There was she, a horse- loving woman, bumping through the Siq in a Land Rover, wearing a skirt and hat. Whereas touristy me — town-bred and with no more knowledge of nags than a few donkey- rides sixty years ago — I rode high and proud on Suzy, a two-year-old Arab who was full of wind and nervous at moving so slowly.
Holding my back straight and clutching the plaited strings that had once been reins, I felt as intrepid as Stark, as hardened as Lawrence, as much the explorer as Burckhardt. I was there — at last! (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…)
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 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…)
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…)
Not on the Itinerary continue… August 8, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Brazil, England, France, Hotels, Round The World, Tour, Travel Clinic , 3commentsNow I felt well under par. Lying on the bed, which was very old- fashioned but deliciously comfortable, I thought of my home, my Queen and my country. The time was now about nine-thirty, and I must have looked ghastly, for a young nurse who popped in with a set of pyjamas sized up the situation in a second and popped out again, running down the corridor calling for help. (more…)
The EXhilaration Adventure, real Hiking Mountain Trail, Kebnekaise Mountain Station continue… July 18, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, Cars, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, Lodges, Motel, Restaurant, Sweden, Switzerland, Wellington , 2commentsIt was soon clear that the man had no idea what he was doing. He shouldn’t have been in the mountains. I asked him where his gear was. “Over there,” he said, pointing to the corner of the room. There was a tiny rucksack, a summer sleeping bag and a pair of Wellington boots. “Is that all?” I asked.
“Shit man, I didn‘t expect this. I came straight down the path from Abisko. It was beautiful the first two days. Which way did you come?”
“Over the mountains through Lapporten.”
“What was it like up there?”
“Cold and too much snow.”
“Where are you going?” (more…)
The EXhilaration Adventure, real Hiking Mountain Trail, Kebnekaise Mountain Station July 18, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Art Gallery, Beach Resorts, Cars, Coliseum, Dolphinarium, Hostels, Hotels, Lodges, Motel, Museum, Norway, Oceanarium, Planetarium, Restaurant, Round The World, Sweden, Trip , 2commentsThree of us got off the train at Abisko in the mountains of Swedish Lapland: two men and a dog. I sat on my rucksack while the dog and his friend strolled over to the station building. When they were out of sight I stood up, glanced at my map and took a compass reading. It’s difficult to look confident in the mountains, so I always check map readings when there’s no-one to question my judgment.
I was going to walk south through Lapporten to Kebnekaise — Sweden’s highest mountain, 7,000 feet above sea level — and on to Nikkaluotka, a Lapp settlement by a beautiful ribbon lake. If the weather was good, it would take about a week. If not, I told myself that ten days would do. (more…)
Getting High in the Yemen Question: how can you see London, Paris and New York simultaneously while sitting in a Remote Corner of the Arabian Peninsula? July 9, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Africa, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, Cars, Europe, Hostels, Hotels, Lodges, London, Museum, Oceanarium, Round The World, Tour, USA , 3commentsAnswer: adopt the national pastime of North Yemen and devote the entire afternoon to chewing the narcotic qat leaf. Our host, his eyes dreamy and his cheeks bulging with the drug, rocks with laughter at his own joke.
We had landed that morning to find ourselves catapulted into a medieval Manhatten, a confusing world of centuries-old mud skyscrapers and lavish exteriors that make a mockery of the Middle Eastern practice of living behind blank facades. Resting in a secluded courtyard we watch a veiled face peer out from behind a half-opened shutter high up on a crumbling wall. A basket lowers itself to the ground from a distant rooftop. A train of three camels, loaded down with bundles of qat, squeezes through a tiny alleyway and lurches past the massive studded door of a mosque. (more…)
Travel, Hiking, Sightseeing; one day holiday away along the Golden Road June 29, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Asia, Hotels, Kazakhstan, London, Memorial, Scotland , add a commentIt was only on the way to Samarkand, the real pearl of ancient Central Asia (now the pearl of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan). But the memories of that day in little Bukhara are more vivid, more persistent, and looking back I think I understand why, through the centuries, merchants and pilgrims and assorted adventurers, guided by nothing but the stars, were prepared to brave the Red Sand Desert, the Celestial Mountains, the look-outs on the Tower of Death and very likely the Black Pit of vipers and vermin for a look at the fabulous, forbidden town.
They say that only two Christians defiled Bukhara with their infidel gaze in the 400 years before 1840. That was the year Captain Connolly of the Bengal Light Cavalry crawled out of the pit with his flesh in tatters, to have his head cut off in the ceremonial courtyard for his pains. (more…)
My Thailand Travel Diary part 3 June 12, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Bangkok, Hotels, India, Japan, Museum, New York, Singapore, Thailand , add a commentSome attractive old wooden buildings survive in Chinatown (Yaowaraj), most of them owned by gem-cutting and money-changing establishments. I go next to the zoo to see the white elephants. The mother of Buddha having dreamed of one during her pregnancy, these off-pink albinos are regarded as holy and are the property of the king. Mr. Niloubel assures me that most of the reptiles in the zoo can also be encountered in the city’s parks and canals. Near the entrance is a pet shop advertising “Newly- Whelped Tigers.”
For me the main attractions of the Emerald Buddha and the Dusit Palace are the electric fans. The emerald-and-jade idol is small and at a squinting elevation, while the decor of the palace’s royal audience room will make little impression on anyone who has seen the Oriental Hotel first. But this is niggling: the gold statues of mythical man-animals, of warriors with roosters’ tails, and the music of golden bells windblown under temple eaves are dazzling. (more…)
