I’m writing this as we turn into Spring. The weather is on the turn now. Each day you can feel it getting slightly warmer, although it does still get a bit nippy at night. A couple of Saturdays ago my friend Joao came over from Lisbon and we had a late lunch sitting by the sea enjoying the sunshine and the following day I drove up to Ericeira to meet up with my friend Vanessa to visit Mafra market.

I left home about 9.00 and had a fabulous drive up the coast. Everywhere is so green at the moment and the blossom is starting to come out. Even the badly burnt areas around Mafra have changed colour. All the allotment areas are a vision of freshly turned earth and newly planted vegetables. The locals were all out along the roadside with their little tables selling bags of potatoes, onions, turnips, garlic, bread, chorizo etc etc. This is quite a common sight at weekends and in some places you can buy beautiful bunches of flowers. There is a lovely miniature village on the outskirts of Ericeira and opposite it is an area just devoted to vegetables and fresh bread. The miniature village also does a mean doughnut – always worth a stop!

We set off to explore further up the coast towards Peniche. It was lovely to see new parts of the country. The coastline is very beautiful and the villages and little towns quite fascinating. Some are still very traditional and quaint but spoilt by seventies infill building. We also passed a very amusing Vespa rally. This consisted of about 80 different coloured Vespas of varying ages, driven by young, middle-aged and old bikers!

Then, of course, lunch beckoned. The previous weekend Vanessa had been to a restaurant that she said was amazing so we tootled off back towards Ericeira looking for the village. We found it quite easily but then had to ask directions to the restaurant. She said that the road went from tarmac to rough but when the rough started it was something else. Basically the road ran out at the edge of a cliff. I sort of sat there dumbstruck and she offered to drive – I gratefully accepted. The access to this restaurant is down a rough three-quarter size track with a direct drop into the ocean and has about three hairpin bends in it! She managed perfectly of course. It’s me – I hate heights and can’t swim, so that combination was a guarantee of a panic!

The place was fantastic. It’s on the edge of the cliff with views out over the Atlantic (next coastline the USA). It is run by fishermen so the fish is chucked up the cliff and straight into the kitchen. It has three dining rooms and by the time we left at about 1.30 the place was packed out. Because we were early (12.10) we managed to get a table for two by the window. The majority of the tables were already set up for families with bread, olives, pasteis (home made mixed fish ones) and varying sizes of big saucepans containing caldeirada (a wonderful Portuguese fish stew). There was a daily fish menu but they also did meat dishes. The kitchen was open to view and the chef is a fisherman himself.

Vanessa had a half portion (a full portion can feed three) of mixed fried cuttlefish and manta ray which was served with tomato and black bean rice and chips in small chunks; I had a skewer of monkfish with prawns with a salad. We had a local bottle of fabulous white wine and the total bill was 21 euros (approximately £14). Can’t wait to go again but only if Vanessa will drive down the cliff!

Eventually made it to Mafra market. It’s a good market with the usual stalls of T-shirts, jeans, bedding, household goods, baskets, materials, sunglasses etc. The underwear stall was selling bras and knickers at 2 euros a piece! And good quality too. It was a very windy day so the stallholders were desperately holding things down with the nearest available stone. The market is held in front of the Mafra Palace which makes it a rather good setting. The olives they sell on Cascais market are beautiful. I bought some big black ones (€2.70 a kilo) and marinated them in garlic, olive oil, Italian seasoning and chilli flakes.

Which countries are represented by these flags? For the answers, see at the end of the e-news.

We are sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing strong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of Mac reminiscences about some of his travels in 1992. Here we have thoughts and experiences on India.

Vasco De Gama, Goa, India 14 Jan 1992. Got on narrow gauge train at 830PM and arrived at Mirji Junction at 5AM where I was to change for a wide gauge train to Delhi at 7AM. They put a notice on board in station what train car you are suppose to go on and what berth. My name was not on the list although I had made a reservation. Sometimes they would have my name as Wilfred (my first name) as last name and no reservation under either my first, middle or last name. I then looked for the number 67 (my age then.) They put your age beside your name so all India now knows my age. There was not even a number lucky 67 number. The station supervisor was not worried. He said the conductor would know even if my name was not there and to get in berth A5 if no one was in this berth. This was not First Class which my ticket was, but second class air conditioned sleeper which I had found I already preferred to First Class.

They gave me a side bed without curtain (all others had) and it is door where everyone passes. It is like laying on display in Lenin’s Tomb with a continual parade of people going through door and looking at me in surprise. Ha! It turned out though to be a good way to meet people as many asked me where I was from and asked me to visit them if I passed through their city. I met the High Sheriff of Calcutta this way, a lady Indian architect (unusual) and a Indian Army Officer that later showed me all around Agra on his motorcycle.

Kalismer India. Got a haircut and shave in a hole in a wall barber shop that was just wide enough for a barber chair and with a mirror in front of you and a mirror in back of you. You could see what the barber was doing to the back of your head. What a good idea. Barber spent ten minutes lathering and brushing my face and then shaved it. It was so cheap that I had him do it a second time! 5 rupees (twenty cents.) Haircut was 10 rupees (forty cents) Getting a shave and haircut in India was like it used to be in Japan with lots of attention and I like that.

At the YMCA hotel in New Delhi they gave you a card with address, phone number, your room number and on its back a map of city showing location of your hotel. Great Idea.

30 Jan 1992 in New Delhi, India. If in Delhi, try to be there around the 26 Jan for their national day. Parades with decorated Elephants, colourful pageants etc.) When I ordered eggs fried sunny side up this morning they did not understand sunny side up. An Indian said I should have said eggs Bulls eye if I wanted them sunny side up.

The huge Jain Mosque, the largest in India in Old Delhi has souvenir stands in front selling pictures of Saddam Hussein (whatever happened to him??) of Iraq. No pictures of Bush or me.

In the First Class waiting room in Old Delhi train station (there is an Old Delhi Train Station and a New Delhi Train Station (different trains to different destinations leave from each and they are quite aways apart. Both of them are old and I am usually at the wrong one. A well dressed Indian came up to me in the 1st Class waiting room with a porter (coolie) (they do call them coolies) carrying his luggage (brand new) on his head (on the coolies head.) He spoke to me and asked where I was from. He had just came from one of the Arab States (Qatar) where he had worked as an engineer for several years. When I mentioned about the mosque having pictures of Saddam Hussein for sale outside the mosque and that I had heard there was a bar in Dubai that was serving both sides at the same time (Iraqis, Iranians off ships and American servicemen at the same time to the surprise of both sides he said he was not surprised that the Iraq Embassy in Bahrain was open all during the 1992 Gulf War. I didn’t think Iraqis or Iranians Moslems drank but some do. This bar was Ponchos, was a Mexican style bar, very popular with foreigners living in Dubai and one time a ship had been torpedoed and those rescued and the torpeaders were in bar at the same time !) Dubai evidently allows or looks the other way at some practices that other Arab countries don’t allow.

In Indian train station waiting rooms I would sometimes lay my silver space blanket down on the floor and sleep using my belongings as a pillow. If I had to go to the toilet I would sometimes ask an Indian lady if one was there (although I think they had separate rooms for women only if they desired) to look after my stuff. I found Indian women were flattered if you talked to them as a human being and they were very good at giving information and looking after ones stuff and one. It was just me sleeping on the floor many others did too. Instead of getting up early at your lodging for an early train I would sleep that night in the waiting room as did many Indians.

The Indian engineer said they had fantastic lotteries in Dubai. They will deliver the prizes anyplace in the world. Luxury cars, lotteries for apartments in London and Washington, D.C. etc. Fantastic duty fee shops and Dubai is a world of luxury. Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world (Kuwait used to be)

I was in India several times using Indian Rail Pass. You were not questioned about sleeping in 1st class if you had a rail pass. Besides the waiting rooms some of the train stations had accommodations (with beds, mosquito knits etc ) nearby Arriving in Calcutta at an ungodly hour I slept in these accommodations one time rather than try to make it outside that early.

India is interesting.

And on a parting note: The National Geographic Traveller for April 2004 has a very good article on the Rajasthan section of India. To me that is the most exotic part of India. I found this comment amusing. “If you find the sometimes less than spotless conditions in India up setting try pretending you’re British. The British don’t mind a little dirt,” a resident of Jaipur commented. “They look on it as part of the adventure” Me: if my British friends at the Globetrotters Club want to sue National Geographic, I can get them a good lawyer! Another comment was that if someone in India puts a garland of flowers around your neck you are supposed after a few minutes to take the garland off and carry it in your hand to show that you are humble. I wore mine for days. No wonder India asked me to leave!

If you would like to contact Mac, he is happy to answer e-mails: macsan400@yahoo.com

Ever tried to book a reasonably priced hotel room in London? Failed miserably? Well, look no further. easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has come up with a new idea (although we’d like to know what happened to easyCruise?) – he has bought a 12-room hotel in Kensington, London and plans an easyHotel brand which is hoped to be replicated around the world.

The hotel aims to replicate the success of his budget airline with bargain prices in return for a genuinely no frills “sleep-and-shower” experience. The room is one of 25 in what will be London’s closest equivalent to Tokyo’s “capsule hotels”, though there will at least be space to stand up. The hotel’s prefabricated 9ft by 10ft rooms, probably made out of glass fibre or moulded plastic, will be slotted into the shell of the 19th century building and connected up to water and electricity.

Guests will be provided with a Japanese-style double mattress bed with clean sheets and a duvet, a shower, a lavatory, wash basin with a mirror and a rack for hanging clothes – and a roll of toilet paper. There will be no breakfast included, no restaurant, not even a reception desk, no phones, TVs, nor will there be any pictures on the wall or carpet on the floor. Towels and toiletries will have to be provided by the guests, and anyone who wants their bed made during the day will be charged extra.

Some of the rooms, which are only nine times bigger than a phone box, may not even have windows. All bookings will be made on the internet or over the phone. Those who book early for stays on the less popular nights will get the £5 bargains. However, the average price is likely to be just over £30 – the level at which Mr Haji-Ioannou says the hotel will break even. The top price will be around £50 to £60 for those taking the last few available rooms. For more info and pictures of the new hotel in Kensington, London, see: http://www.easyhotel.com/

Answers to the Flags Quiz

Bolivia

Bahamas

Czech Republic

Greece

Italy