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

Padmassana went travelling around Kyushu in June/July time. Here is the final of three extracts from his travel journal.

From Kagoshima I went on a day trip on a small bus to Chiran. The bus took about an hour and a half and cost about £10 return. Chiran is famous for Samurai houses and the Kamikaze museum – very interesting but little information in English, most interesting part is the now de classified documents relating to the USS Curtis which took a direct hit from a kamikaze plane. Kagoshima has plenty of things to see including a superb aquarium with giant crabs that live at 300m at the bottom of the sea and a good jellyfish exhibition and good English signs.

From Kagoshima I travelled north to Kumamoto, which took about three and a half hours. I stayed in a beautiful Ryokan with tatami room, even if I did have to get a postman to show me where it was! Kumamoto is easy to get round with trams and busses, though most of it is walkable. Went to the super castle and a wonderful Japanese garden.

Kumamoto is a very nice city, it has some Suizenn-ji gardens, which were built by a Shogun in the 16th century for him to have tea, as there is a spring there perfect for making good tea. Around this he built fabulous Japanese gardens complete with koi carp ponds. This is a very popular destination with Japanese tourists who go there to have their pictures taken with Mt Fuji in the background. Around the edge of the gardens are little stalls, which sell the locally famous “fish on wheels” and spinning tops, great souvenirs. Kumamoto-Jo or castle is largely new and inside apart from a bit of armour there's not much to see, outside is a little more interesting and again there are signs in English explaining what you are seeing.

From Kumamoto, I went to Mt Aso. To get to Mt Aso, you have to take a local train from Kumamoto, then a small bus up the side of the mountain and then take a cable car to see the inside of the volcano crater. But I was unable to do this, as it was active! A little while ago, the volcano started spewing poisonous gas and lumps of rock, and as a woman was killed so the authorities put a 1km exclusion zone round it. Went instead to the museum, which is not bad, although there was not much signage in English but it does have the feedback from 2 live video links from inside the crater. Today’s pictures were pretty good – a shame that there was no lava, although I suspect that the locals are relieved.

Next, I took the train from Kumamoto to Nagasaki, a nice city, it’s quite industrial, and obviously new. Went to the temples and went to the A-Bomb museum, the No. 1 tourist attraction, full of Japanese school children but also has a scenic river that has stone bridges that used to lead up to a stone temple but this is not there any more. There is another temple with a roof shaped like a tortoise, which is a really nice place to visit. Inside this, it has a Foucault’s pendulum that shows the earth’s rotation – one of only three in the world, the other 2 being in Paris and Leningrad. Nagasaki's “temple row” is quite interesting, many of the temples have started to produce little leaflets in English as the west’s interest in the east and Buddhism has grown in the last few years.

I went up the Nagasaki cable car to get a view over the city yesterday before getting the train back to Hakata/Fukuoka. The train took about 2 hours and was included in my two 5 day passes. The city has two names if you didn’t realise: the airport is called Fukuoka, but the train station is called Hakata. Was going to go up the Fukuoka tower but despite being 80 degrees it was very hot and sticky with low cloud, so did what the Beetle would have done and went shopping! Bought myself a little Japanese garden that you build yourself, saw one in a Ryokan and have been looking ever since, would you believe I found one in the basement shopping area of Hakata station at 7.30pm on my last night. And then ready to come home back to the UK.

A note on Japanese train passes: Japanese train passes are only available to foreigners and must be bought outside Japan. Once you start a pass you have to travel from that day onwards. Passes come in 5, 10, 14 and 21 days. This works out much cheaper than buying train passes as you go. Some ferries and buses are included in the passes.

If you would like to contact Padmassana to ask him about his time in Japan, he can be e-mailed on: padmassana@globetrotters.co.uk

This is the third of three descriptions of the 24 sites of “outstanding universal value”, that have been designated world heritage sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

These are as follows:

• Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro, Mexico: Built during the last phase of the conversion to Christianity of the interior of Mexico in the mid-18th Century. The richly decorated church façades are of special interest as they represent an example of the joint creative efforts of the missionaries and the Indios.
• Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland, Poland: The churches represent outstanding examples of the different aspects of medieval church-building traditions in Roman Catholic culture.
• Citadel, Ancient City and Fortress Buildings of Derbent, Russian Federation: Part of the northern limits of the Sassanian Persian Empire, which extended east and west of the Caspian Sea. The town of Derbent has retained part of its medieval fabric.
• Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, South Africa: An open, expansive savannah landscape situated on the northern border of South Africa joining Zimbabwe and Botswana. Mapungubwe developed into the largest kingdom in the sub-continent before it was abandoned in the 14th Century. The almost untouched remains of the palace sites, a settlement area and two earlier capital sites survive.
• Ubeda-Baeza: Urban duality, cultural unity, Spain: The urban morphology of the two small cities of Ubeda and Baeza in southern Spain dates back to the Moorish 9th Century and to the Reconquista in the 13th Century. In the 16th Century, the cities were renovated along the lines of the emerging Renaissance.
• Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region, Sudan: Includes several archaeological sites, over more than 60 km (37 miles) in the Nile Valley, of the Napatan (900 to 270 BC) and Meroitic (270 BC to 350 AD) cultures, of the second kingdom of Kush. Tombs, with and without pyramids, temples, living complexes and palaces are also found on the site.
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom: The historic landscape garden illustrates the art of gardens from the 18th to the 20th Centuries. The gardens house botanic collections (conserved plants, living plants and documents) that have been considerably enriched through the centuries.
• Matobo Hills, Zimbabwe: Distinctive rock land forms associated with human occupation from the early Stone Age to early historical times, and intermittently since. They also feature an outstanding collection of rock paintings.
• Central Amazon Conservation Complex, Brazil: Comprises the largest protected area in the Amazon Basin and one of the planet's richest regions in terms of biodiversity.
• Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China: These tombs were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2000. The property inscribed this year as an extension consists of two distinct burial sites of the Ming Dynasty emperors. Xiaoling, the first emperor of that dynasty is buried there, as are 13 others.
• Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo and the Historic District of Panama, Panama: Panama Viejo covers the location and ruins of the first European settlement on the American mainland and pre-Hispanic remains. It features impressive ruins. Moreover, older remains, dating to up to 1,000 years before the arrival of the Europeans, were excavated on this site.

Source: BBC News

You know when you’ve been Dengued. Or do you’

After spending two weeks in the south of Thailand, I caught an over night bus from Sarat Thani back to Bangkok. That morning, to my surprise I managed to reschedule my flight due out the following day to Australia. Delighted that I had extended my stay in Thailand I went out that night and celebrated.

After sleeping for four hours, I woke with a rumbling stomach. I tried to ignore it. Dozing in and out of consciousness, my bowels decided that I needed to perch on the toilet. In Thailand, this seemed hardly unusual and I was not alarmed until daylight appeared: I realized I had been decorating the toilet at least ten times in three hours. Was I glad not to be on that fourteen-hour flight to Australia!

I had a persistent headache throughout the day and I noticed a pain in my lower back had become worse. That afternoon I went to the cinema. While seated the pain in my back spread down into my legs. Constantly fidgeting, I struggled to concentrate on the movie. The walk back to the house was exhausting so I went straight to bed.

OK so every one has been ill or felt pain at some point in life. Independent self-diagnosis of symptoms overrides concern about our well being and we often think nothing of it. Let’s look at the symptoms:

Diarrhoea – Is that not compulsory when travelling abroad?

Back pain – My backpack, one week sleeping in a wooden hut and then the overnight bus …..

Fever – What fever? It was the beginning of May – 40 degrees centigrade plus – Thailand's hottest time of year. The rainy season was building up and the air was extremely close.

Headache – Not much sleep recently, possible dehydration from the heat and, … erm …. hangover.

Leg ache – Did I drink any cheap Thai whiskey last night?

The next morning, I was no better. Noi, my host, took me to the doctor. Once inside the hospital, the nurse routinely took my blood pressure before seeing the doctor. I recounted my symptoms and he suggested I have a blood test. OK, so I hate needles! It’s not so much that I hate injections – they just jab into you and then that is it over and done. No, it’s the searching for a suitable vein first (can understand that, Beetle!).

The nurse hunted up and down my arms and around my hands for ages. Hurry up, I thought. I started to hyperventilate. Failing on the first vein, the nurse got some blood on the second. Then another needle appeared with a clear bag of liquid attached to it. I became nervous again. “What's it for?” I asked Noi. 'It is to make you strong” she said. “OK but what is it?” I asked. “Water. Don’t worry. It is OK” Noi tried to reassure me. “I will come back in six hours when it is finished.”

Six hours! Now lets slow down a minute. If I go to the doctor back home, I do not get put on a drip of water for six hours. Promising to drink plenty of mineral water, and with a recommendation to return in three days, I left the hospital.

Two days passed and I still felt unwell. I decided to have a flick through my travel health book. OK, what am I looking for here? I started with back pain. Sprains. Slipped discs… other types of back pain: Dengue Fever. What is that, I had never heard of it before. I read the symptoms. Hang on a minute – back pain yep, fever yep, diarrhoea yep, banging headaches yep. Oh no! Please don't tell me, I have this …… wait for it … tropical disease!

I realised it was quite possible. The white-backed mosquito carries Dengue Fever and outbreaks are particularly common in South East Asia – where I had been. They generally bite in the daytime. On reflection, I had fallen asleep in my hut one afternoon and woke up to find a circle of mosquito bites on my left leg.

I read on: although the symptoms are similar to that of Malaria, I discovered there is nothing you can do to prevent catching it, except slap on lots of insect repellent. A vaccine is still in the process of being developed. The good news is that you cannot catch it from another person. The bad news is that it is serious. There are four different strains of Dengue fever. Catching one kind only gives immunity to that strain. There is also the far more serious Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever, which causes the sufferer to bleed to death without immediate medical attention. This usually only occurs in children under fifteen.

Gulp…what if I am infected, am I going to die or be permanently affected by it?

It was now day three and I was feeling worse than ever. For the first time in my life, when a doctor has told me to return, I had to obey.

In part 2, Ingrid tells us of her stay in a Thai hospital, visits from ants and priests and how she recovered!

If you would like to contact Ingrid, who is currently in Chile, you can e-mail her on:gr.ing.a.rid@latinmail.com

Muir’s Tours recently launched their volunteer teaching programme in Peru and it is proving to be very popular with Gap Year students. They have now set up another teaching facility in the ancient settlement of Huancayo where you can experience pre Inca culture and hospitality.

For more information, see http://www.nkf-mt.org.uk/volunteer_Huancayo_Peru.htm

Indonesia is the largest archipelago and the fifth most populous country in the world. Consisting of five main islands and 30 smaller archipelagos, it has a total of 13.677 of which about 6.000 are inhabited. It stretches 5.120 km (3.200 miles) between Australia and the Asia mainland and divides the Pacific and Indian Ocean at the equator. The third largest country in Asia in terms of both population and area after China and India, Indonesia’s national territory consist for 84 percent of sea and only for 16 percent of land. The five biggest islands are Kalimantan (539,460 sq km), Sumatra (473,606 sq km), Irian Jaya (421,952 sq km), Sulawesi (189,035 sq km) and Java including Madura (132,035 sq km).

It is a destination which offers diverse interests in a great variety of cultures, scenic beauty of its island, customs and the natural architecture of green paddy fields, all enveloped in a warm tropical climate.

SUMATRA

Sumatra, the archipelago’s second largest island consists of an extraordinary wealth of resources, peoples and cultures. Medan is the gateway for travel to Lake Toba, the world largest volcanic lake. The enchanting Samosir island in the middle of the lake is the best place to observe traditional Batak culture. Adventurous travellers will visit Mt. Leuser National park, one of the richest in South East Asia, with unspoiled ecological systems supporting more than 500 species of birds, 3500 species of plants and housing endangered species such as sumatranese tiger and rhinoceros, elephants, gibbons. Orang utan can be easily approached in Bahorok rehabilitation center, deep in the dense jungle. Surf lovers as well as remote culture seekers will find it all in the unique island of Nias.

JAVA

Java is one of nature’s masterworks: some 120 volcanoes (30 are still active) have spread over the times fertile ashes supporting an extraordinary luxuriant vegetation. Such natural blessings were turned to great advantage by untold generations of Javanese who sculpted rice terraces everywhere it was possible to. The glorious civilization of ancient java – producers of masterpieces such as Borobudur and Prambanan temple, was founded on this agricultural bounty and since the early times, java has exerted an inordinate influence over the surrounding areas. Today over 110 million of people live here, in an area only as large as England. (60% of Indonesia total populations). The political cultural and economic heart of the worlds 5^th largest nation, Java has no peer as a place to visit. Found here is every imaginable landscape and treasure. Java is indeed a microcosm of all the wonders and the burdens of this great island nation.

SULAWESI or CELEBES

Sulawesi or Celebes Island. A glance at any map of Sulawesi, formerly known as Celebes, immediately highlights the island’s strangest attribute; its shape. Variously described as looking like an orchid, a spider or a giant crab, the island four “arms” radiate from a mountainous core. Despite covering an area nearly as large as Britain, no place is more than 40 km from the sea. Most people visit the island to see the Toraja, living in the south province. Their funerals ceremonies, cliff burial sites and soaring roofed houses makes this culture on of the most fascinating in the world. Makasar (formerly Ujung Pandang), Sulawesi largest city is the usual port of entry. Manado on the northern tip offers some of the best diving in the country and is also becoming increasingly popular.

KALIMANTAN or BORNEO

Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo is a huge, thinly populated territory of swamps, jungle, mountains and rivers. Approximately the size of France, Kalimantan’s 10 million inhabitants make just 5% of the country population, most of which is concentrated in coastal cities. If you are looking for jungle and jungle culture, Kalimantan is your destination. The eastern province is the most popular destination with Balikpapan, an oil industry center as a gateway. Board a comfortable houseboat and wind your way slowly up the fascinating Mahakam River into the Dayak people land. Once known as the force headhunters, the Dayak have for long abandoned this tradition but have maintained their unique culture and most still live traditional long houses set on stilts. Banjarmasin in the southern province has certainly the biggest and most authentic floating market in Asia and is a good starting point for wildlife expeditions to Tanjung Putting National Park and the orang utans rehabilitation center at Camp Leakey.

IRIAN JAYA

Irian Jaya is the largest and most eastern province of Indonesia and covers the western half of the island of New Guinea, the eastern part of the island is the territory of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Almost three quarter of the island consist of high mountains. The rest is wide lowlands, deep valley, wide muddy river mouths, swamps and jungle. The primitive cultures of the Irian tribes are of special interest. The Baliem valley in the central part of Irian Jaya is very well known and the natural beauty is enhanced by the people’s faithful adherence to their ancestral customs and traditions.

Well, if you are thinking of holiday trip, or even just information on any travel requirements in Indonesia, please do not hesitate to contact us: abctour_td@cbn.net.id We will be most happy to assist you.

On the way to Buenos Aires

We only did two visits during the five days it took to drive from Tierra del Fuego to Buenos Aires (BA) and so we arrived in that capital city ready for a rest and some comfortable beds! The only problem was, although our hotel was situated right bang in the centre of BA, we were not only on a street that was a regular bus route, but arrived at a time when major road works were going on all over BA and one set of which were right outside our hotel, so what with traffic all around us, pneumatic drills and revelers in the early hours, it was difficult to get any sleep! And of course it was very hot, but not as hot as it had been apparently, when temperatures had reached 40+. At least our temperatures were more in the high 20s/early 30s.

But BA was an incredible place, with long, extremely wide, roads cutting across it, all with their names reflecting history – names of specific dates such as “Avenida de 9 Julio” reflecting I believe their independence day; others after names of presidents such as “Avenida de Mayo” etc. We were only there for 5 nights, 4 days, and so spent most of it trying to get in as much catching up on emails and see as much of the sights as possible, including a trip to Uruguay for the day.

Of course, we all did our separate things, Judith and I sharing a room and our experiences and in the end we saw a great deal of the capital but not enough as it turned out as a lot of the museums were closed on a Monday (we arrived on a Thursday evening, and were leaving again early on the Tuesday) so our time was rather limited.

Friday was spent recovering from our epic five day journey and just looking around the immediate locality, getting laundry done and catching up on bits and pieces of shopping; Saturday it poured down all day long, but undaunted Judith and I went to see Eva Perón’s tomb (which was very low key, tucked away nondescriptly in one of a great number of rows of mausoleums in a cemetery just off the main central part of BA). But Judith was enthralled by it and had to have her photo taken in front of it, which I obligingly did on my camera as she had forgotten hers and it had been put in the hotel safe as a security precaution!

We also visited a famous part of BA called La Bocca which is really the slum area of BA but which has been renovated in parts and houses a thriving arts community. Many of the walls have murals depicting the history of the area but there are also many art shops and displays to wander around, besides street musicians and wandering artists, and of course the obligatory touristy shops! It had a lot of character and we spent the evening there, having a meal in one of the restaurants and enjoying the experience. To get there we had travelled on the bus and metro and that was quite an experience, especially travelling on the bus as although they do stop at designated bus stops, they will also open their doors and wait for you if you just signal them, but invariably this has to be when they are caught in a traffic jam because very often the public buses seem to be in a great hurry to get somewhere and very often drive straight past bus stops even when people are queuing there.

On the Sunday we went across to Uruguay for the day – taking the local ferry across the River Uruguay that took just under 3 hours. We left our hotel at 8am and took a taxi to the local ferry port, which was teeming with life. First of all we had to purchase a ticket, and went to one of the local ferry operators for this and that took some 40 minutes to be processed and then we had to queue for embarkation and get a stamp exiting Argentina and another stamp for entering Uruguay, and, of course, on the way back we had to then exit Uruguay and reenter Argentina.

But the day was brilliantly sunny and so we sat on deck for the entire outward crossing to Uruguay although on the return journey at 1845 it was too chilly to do this and so we spent almost the entire journey in one of the very crowded saloons, jam-packed with the day trippers, locals as well as tourists.

We went to a place called Colonia. We could have gone to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay but it would have been going from one big city to another, and so chose a “luxury” day trip fare to Colonia, (much nicer than Montevideo, Iris – Beetle) which is an ancient town some 150 km down the coast from Montevideo, which is a World Heritage site because of its old town with some of the original town wall surviving and lots of its old original houses from the 17th and 18th centuries not only still standing but still being used as homes and businesses by the local population, with the proviso they do not alter the structures noticeably.

Our package included a two-course lunch, a guided tour of the new and old towns of Colonia, and of course the return ferry fare. It proved a really rewarding day out, as although it was visited by so many, it was well organized and even the old town did not seem that overcrowded with tourists and one was able to walk around, admire the old architecture and the views along the river and learn something of the history of the place, which was originally settled by the Spanish and then taken over by the Portuguese and became part of Brazil until it got its independence in the 19th century.

Monday was spent in BA, catching up on emails, and visiting the opera house and the presidential palace. Of the opera house, we only got a very brief inside glimpse as it is closed on a Monday for cleaning and normally groups are not allowed in. However, Judith is a very persuasive lady and with her “pretty please” approach, swung us a brief glance inside the auditorium with its plush furnishings etc. Then we moved on to the presidential palace, first of all to look at the archives and catacombs and later to go on a guided tour of the palace itself. Unfortunately, the guided tour was in Spanish only and so most of the time we had to be content to just admire the magnificent architecture and furnishings rather than learn much about its history and unfortunately books in English on the palace weren’t to be had, but of course, we associated it with Eva Peron and looked at it all with her image well in mind!

Next month, Iris tells us of her visit to the Iguaçu Falls.

If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk

The Beetle received this e-mail from a Globetrotters who thought it might be useful to pass on to other travellers. If you find yourself under the weather, there is almost always an alternative remedy to finding the local doctor – but if in doubt, seek proper medical advice.

Easy eyeglass protection: to prevent the screws in eyeglasses from loosening, apply a small drop of clear nail polish to the threads of the screws before tightening them.

Tomato puree boil cure: cover the boil with tomato puree as a compress. The acids from the tomatoes soothe the pain and bring the boil to a head. (Beetle: applying a piece of tomato against bee or wasp stings can help soothe the sting.)

Vinegar to heal bruises: soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and apply it to the bruise for 1 hour. The vinegar reduces the blueness and speeds up the healing process. (Beetle: vinegar can also be used to take the soreness away from sunburn.)

If you have any handy hints and tips for medical problems whilst travelling, write in and let the Beetle know.

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

U. S. Soldiers Home, Washington: during a century of travel (well 78 years!) both in and out of service I have travelled to over 150 countries (I count both North and South Dakota as countries) and for some reason have jotted signs and happenings that I thought funny at the time (and now wonder why). So here is the perfect opportunity to share some of my anecdotes.

When I was in Hong Kong a Sir Run Run Shaw (his actual name) had donated a wing to the Hong Kong Arts Centre (he had a dysentery problem)

The Jardine Center in Hong Kong has a tourist bureau in its basement. The buildings walls have thousands of round windows. The Chinese refer to it as the house of 1000 assholes.

Hong Kong Chunk King Mansions (anything but a mansion) (has hundreds of cheap budget accommodation.) In the Garden Hotel in it (anything but a garden) the Mama san told a married couple that asked for two towels “one room, one towel.” My towel and room had not been cleaned for a week. Each day she would say washee, washee tomorrow but tomorrow never came. Finally one of my visitors grabbed the towel and took it out in the lobby to show the other guests how dirty it was. The mama san did sleep outside my door each night. I don’t know if this was go guard me or to see that I did not escape.

At the Palace Casino (one of the gambling ships tied to the dock in Macao) when the dealer found out I was an American asked me if I thought the CIA had killed Indiri Ghandi in India.

We were not attacked by pirates on ship from Hong Kong to Macau and the trip was uneventful except while still tied to the dock the Chinese lady behind me got sick and vomited on me.

In Hong Kong Haw Paw Villa Dragon Amusement Park they have a sign “Students in uniform (the students wear uniforms) are not allowed to play video games. (Let’s not disgrace the uniform.)

In Hong Kong I went out to Stanley Military Cemetery. It was just outside the regular prison (still being used) where Japanese kept British and other allied prisoners during World War II. The view of the harbour etc from that site is so beautiful from the prison that it must have been an extra thorn in the side of the prisoners. The sign at their cemetery reads “Here lie men from many countries who gave their lives for freedom. Visitors are asked to behave quietly with respect for those buried here. In particular games may not be played or food cooked”. 69l are buried here including many women and children (98 interned civilians.) One grave reads Unknown Soldier Age 38 years. May he rest in peace. (I wonder how they then determined his age if unknown.)

I met a man in Hong Kong who had been travelling for twenty years. He sometimes takes a Holiday within a Holiday in which he does nothing but rest and then is on the road again. I met him in McDonalds that is behind the famous Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong at five o clock in the morning. It is open 24 hours a day. He gave me tips on budget places to stay around the world. Some of the places: Lucky Hotel in Bangkok, Private Toilet. Malacca Malaysia: Robins Nest Hotel $4.80 a night. If you know a robin looking for a place to stay.

The abandon ship instructions on the ferryboat to Macao from Hong Kong instructed you to not take your umbrella with you if you have to abandon ship. What if it is raining?

And finally, the time when I was victim to a scam: I was on an organized trip and staying at Golden Gate Hotel in Hong Kong. We were told to have our luggage outside our door at six AM to have it transported for us to the airport. We then got a second call and were told to have out luggage out at five AM instead of six and it would be picked up. It was – con artists made the second call and we never saw our luggage again.

Next month, Mac discusses general travel tips.

If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed on: macsan400@yahoo.com