Category Archives: archive

Laos Snippet by Busby

I went on my two month long trip of Indochina. I skulked a bit in Qatar eyeing up the tablecloth-clad gentlemen and in turn being the recipient of their roving eye. Thought maybe not. From Bangkok Railway Station there was a direct train. This leaves every night at 8:00pm or 8:20pm. You can book a sleeper berth complete with curtains to the Friendship Bridge at the Laotian border. Crossing the border is easy – the usual stuff – $20 and a British Passport and you are there. Vientiane is the next stop. One needs to speak a little French to admire Alleys, les baguettes, Les Arch de Triomphe. I walked everywhere – the whole place is less than three square miles.

If you happen to skip the French breakfast, the French colonial attitude and the temperature, go to Luang Prabang. It’s a beautiful place – until they get funding to finish the long runway.

If you happen to be female, make sure you are wearing the right underwear: the Buddhist monks on the top of the hill happen to be very observant

Then there was a little problem. Up the Mekong down the Mekong. Make sure you are fit rather than panting your lungs away along the waterfalls like I did.

After having had such a lovely time, it all went a bit sour: three days after flying back from Cambodia, I spent 40 minutes on the internet in Ko Chang (Eastern Thailand) Internet café. A local man asked me if I wanted to buy drugs. I politely refused. What happened next? The guy kicked me in the face and broke my nose, leaving me in a lot of pain, and bleeding all over the place. A Kiwi traveller called the police who arrived pretty quickly. After 4 hours of investigations and searching my possessions, they decided to find the offender. The court case took on the spot. By 2 a.m. the police and the translator were around and so was my attacker; very professional, except me bleeding all over trying to fix my broken nose. I identified my attacker and then I was taken to hospital where the costs of fixing up my poor nose were paid for. I flew back home to avoid the rest of the nonsense.

If you'd like to contact Busby, please e-mail her on: me@krystyna.com

Say No to Flying Fox

The Pacific island of Guam is known for very high rates of a degenerative disease that looks like motor neuron, Parkinson's and dementia, but cannot be firmly identified as any of them. Researchers believe that this higher than average incidence could be due to eating a bat, also known as a flying fox. The flying foxes feed on seed containing a chemical highly toxic to human brain cells. When humans eat the animals, high levels of the chemical, which had accumulated in the bat tissues, was passed on. Flying fox is a delicacy in many parts of the Pacific, including Tonga, Vanuatu, New Caledonia.

The World’s Top 5 Cleanest Countries

The World’s Top 5 Cleanest Countries

  1. Finland
  2. Norway
  3. Canada
  4. Sweden
  5. Switzerland

New Zealand comes 6th, Australia 7th, the US 11th, the UK 16th.

Source: http://www.aneki.com/lists.html

Travelling to Mikindani from Mozambique – Becky Stickland

Having allowed myself the luxury of a two-week break in Durban visiting a long lost friend I turned my thoughts towards the adventure that lay ahead. I have always wanted to visit Mozambique and I saw this as my opportunity to experience, or even just catch a glimpse of, the culture and lifestyles of the Mozambican people as I travelled from South Africa in search of Mikindani.

Arrival in Mocimboa seemed dreamlike as lack of sleep, the temperature rise as we headed north and the travel left me disorientated. I found accommodation in a nearby guesthouse and decided to explore the town. Mocimboa is a sleepy town with white sand lining the streets that lead to the beach at the end of the town. Being accosted by Lucia Juma, the local drunk, (the Beetle has also met this man too – not a nice experience!) set the scene for the rest of the day when I’d naively anticipated a peaceful evening. I played dominoes with the girls in the local restaurant, chatted with the men at the local bar and then a meal at the guesthouse where I chanced across Taiwanese Mr Wu and Abo his Mozambican friend. Mr Wu (no English), myself (no Portuguese) and Abo (a little of all languages) agreed that the local disco must be attended.

The electricity is cut at 10pm so the town is plunged into darkness and the only noises I heard as I walked under the stars to the disco were voices, laughter and crickets. The disco was my first taste of African nightlife and was assuredly colourful, and I danced with my new friends and many others until we left the activity to head for some sleep. My chance stalking by an ‘unpleasant man’ meant that I was escorted back across town by Mr Wu, local ladies and a number of others who clutched my arms the entire walk and yelled at each other in Portuguese; they insisted I stay in their guest house where they could take care of me, but a Muslim guest house, where two men bring back two women in the middle of the night I can assure is not a positive situation. I drifted to sleep and then the cock crowed two hours later as I arose early, once again, for the last part of my journey.

4am perched on the back of an open truck, wedged in between buckets, bicycles, yams and small children as I saw the sunrise. The group of ten of us bumped and rattled, spun and raced along sand filled tracks bound northwards for the Tanzanian border. Mozambique is certainly a beautiful country and it's hard to believe that only years earlier the lands I was fleeting across were littered with landmines. It seems so unlikely that fear and destruction could reign in such a place. It seemed appropriate that an hour from the border our vehicle should break down. A half hour stop as engines were tinkered with, bits of pipe bent and bashed, the lid shut down and once more we flew north. Somehow I imagined my AA card would be of little use in such parts. The Mozambican authorities inspected our vehicle two miles from the border, where an official in khaki and a sultry face indicated that an inspection of my luggage was in order. I began unloading each item out of my 70 litre rucksack and felt violated and indignant that anyone thought they had the right to rifle through my wash bag. (Same thing happened to the Beetle.) He quickly lost interest and although at first intimidated by his stature and official stance, as he mounted his motor-ped I smiled as I observed his right foot was protected by a steel top-capped boot and his left just a flip flop.

We continued by truck, wending our way down towards the Rovuma River. How better to embark in Tanzania than being carried across the shallow waters of the Rovuma to the sandy beach having crossed the mighty river by dhow. The scene was reminiscent of a biblical scene as I was carried like an injured hero returning from war. As I saw Jean and the Trade Aid Land rover waiting close by I breathed a sigh of relief, as I knew I had finally made it safely to Mikindani.

For more information on the work carried out by Trade Aid in Tanzania, see their website www.mikindani.com

Overland West Africa

If you a planning an overland trip in west Africa, then please note that the Nigerian Government has announced that it is closing its borders with the Benin Republic with immediate effect due to an increase in cross-border crime such as smuggling and human trafficking. The main border crossing into Benin is not far from Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos and it normally carries travellers and traders from Benin, Togo, Ghana and beyond.

Woman killed by Shark

A woman was killed by a great white shark while swimming with sea lions at Avala Beach, between Los Angeles and San Francisco in California. This is the first attack in almost ten years. Four lifeguards tried to save her life, but the 50-year-old was declared dead upon reaching the shore. The shark had bitten her left leg, severing her femoral artery. The area is known to be populated by sharks but they usually only attack humans if confused, said a shark specialist interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle. 'If you are wearing a wetsuit and fins and you are swimming with sea lions you are doing a clumsy job of imitating shark food,' he said.

Munich Explored

The Beetle recently visited Munich for shell repairing and discovered that it is a really nice, friendly, pretty and interesting city, easy to get around with some surprising touches – beautiful architecture, outdoor markets, fountains and sculptures.

How to get there: the airport at Munich is vast and well served. From London you can take Lufthansa and British Airways. It’s a short hop – around 1 ¾ hours. To get into the city centre, there are two S-Bahns – the slow one, the S1 and the faster S8. Either journey takes less than an hour. Tickets costs 9 euros and can be used on your next journey to complete your destination, e.g. the bus. You can buy tickets on the platform or from the airport information counter. The S-Bahns are excellent, cheap, clean, completely safe and frequent. Both go directly from the airport via many stations around the city to the central train station where you can make your connection with one of the other many S and U-Bahns.

When to go: well, the Octoberfest jumps out as a good time to visit Munich, which takes place over four weekends in September/October. Otherwise, any time, although July is very, very hot! There are good Christmas markets in November and December. There is almost always a large festival taking place in Munich during any given month.

What is there to see and do: lots and lots. You can stay in the city centre and easily spend a weekend prowling around the baroque churches, museums, art galleries, the town hall, theatres, outdoor fresh produce market, the Residenz, botanical gardens, the Olympic stadium and the English Gardens. One of the oddest sights was muscle-bound tanned men surfing on an artificially made wave of the Eisbach, about 5m wide in the English Garden. For major label shopping, all of the posh shops are rather conveniently concentrated on one street, Maximillian Strasse, otherwise, there’s plenty of high street shopping to do around Marienplaz and some wonderful off beat shops in Munich’s back streets.

Is there more to do than just a weekend? If you want! You can take self guided walking tours around the city, or join one of many walking tours, run in many different languages, or alternatively, there are a variety of day trips that you can do, solo or in an organised group, including one to Dachau, one of many Bavarian palaces, or even the Alps.

Food and Drink? Large portions seem to be the norm. If you like pork, you’ll be very happy here. There is a wide range of restaurants from the usual fast food outlets to upmarket French, Italian, Thai and local Bavarian speciality restaurants. The Hofbrauhaus may be a little touristy, but it’s well worth a visit for a beer and some local food if you are strolling around the English Garden.

Prices? Eating out is generally very reasonably priced, but hotels can be a little pricey. Search on the internet first and contact the tourism agency.

Language: don’t worry if you don’t speak German, a few basic words go a long way, but most people you will encounter speak some English, and menus written in English are widely available.

UK Air Rage

The UK Government is cracking down on air rage by imposing strict sentences on those found guilty of endangering an aircraft with disruptive behaviour.

Serious air rage incidents have increased during the last year with 648 'significant' in-flight incidents reported last year, a rise of around 16 per cent. 40 per cent of incidents were related to smoking and 42 per cent to alcohol.

Under the Aviation Offences Act, air rage passengers will face a five-year jail term if found guilty, three years more than the previous maximum penalty.

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