Wednesday 4th December, 6:30 pm: CUBANA 36 Southwick Street, Paddington, London, W12 1JQ
£10 or (£8 for members) includes cocktail, tapas and entry to prize draw.
A different format from the African event, more mingling and no central presentation. There are 100 tickets avalible, for more information visit www.ifworldwide.com or contact is events@itchyfeet-uk.com or 07900 975 413
People coming here from the UK and elsewhere expect South Africa to be just like the UK. It is just not so. With the advent of the new ANC government things have changed a lot. Everybody can go anywhere they want to. Crime was restricted to certain areas in the past but not so anymore.
The major problems such as bombings, etc., have stopped now and are hopefully gone for good. People here don't have any major gripes in that they need to kill people anymore. There is still a lot of petty crime (as in all large towns and cities) but in the city centre (it's the same here in London – Beetle) all streets are monitored by cameras so this acts as a deterrent.
It is safe here although, like in any big city, from time to time there are incidents, such as muggings and opportunistic theft. As I said in my first article, do not set yourself up as a tourist, rather try and blend in. The following rules are applicable when visiting any large city, whether it is Cape Town, London, New York or Bangkok:
There is a wide range of good accommodation in Cape Town from 5 star to bed and breakfasts, and as far as I know service is good all round. Speaking specifically of Cape Town, service is excellent, the food is first class and you certainly will experience value for money here; there is much to come to South Africa for.
Geoff Fairman is the editor and publisher of Banker's Oldboy's Ezine, a free publication posted via email to your home computer weekly. To read more articles on Cape Town visit:
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Love them or hate them, the one thing McDonalds has, all over the world, is clean bathrooms! As a part of a cost cutting exercise, and increasing competition from the likes of Wendys and Burger King, McDonald's is to stop operating in three as yet unnamed countries, in the Middle East and Latin America. It also plans to close 175 restaurants shedding 600 staff to beef up profits.
Ever wondered how far it is from Paris, France to Paris, Texas? Well, as the crow flies, it is 4847 miles (7800 km) or 4212 nautical miles.
Expedia.com’s lowest return fare flying from Paris, France to Dallas, the closest international airport to Paris Texas on 30th November costs $626.86, which is equivalent to around 13c a mile.
And in case Paris, Texas catches your eye: Paris received recognition in 1998 for being named “Best Small Town in Texas” by Kevin Heubusch in his book “The New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities.”
Paris, Texas is located approximately 100 miles northeast of Dallas, in the Heart of Red River Valley. It was founded in 1839 and became the Lamar County seat in 1844. It later became incorporated in 1845 and today plays a major role in Texas economy within Northeast Texas. Aside from the numerous parks to stroll around, Paris, Texas has the “Second Largest Eiffel Tower in the Second Largest Paris.”
The Miss World competition is still to go ahead on 7 December. Although 5 delegates have withdrawn: Miss Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama there are still over 100 delegates to “compete”. The Nigerian Government, desperate to play down the controversy surrounding Amina Lawal's sentence, (having a baby out of wedlock (no penalty imposed on the father)) has given assurances that it would intervene to save her once the legal process has been exhausted.
Amina Lawal, meanwhile, is said to have asked participants not to boycott the Miss World contest because “a lot of resources had gone into organising the pageant and it should go ahead”. She reportedly told press: “I heard of the boycott threat, but I just think they should come because nothing happens without God's permission”. She also added that she has not been pressurised into speaking against the boycott.
Muslim groups are annoyed that part of the pageant is being held during the holy month of Ramadan. An official of one Muslim group in the city of Gusau said protesters were planning “black prayers” and a “spread of plagues of curses and bad luck on the Miss World organisers and participants”. (Perhaps they could organise some positive prayers and good thoughts for Amina Lawal.)
ThisDay, a Lagos based Nigerian newspaper recently published an article which said that the Prophet Mohammed would probably have chosen to marry one of the contestants if he had witnessed the beauty pageant, which Nigeria is hosting next month. This sparked off riots by thousands of Muslim youths who have rampaged through the suburbs of Kaduna, burning tyres, attacking churches and setting fire to buildings. Schools and businesses are closed, but meanwhile, Miss World soldiers on.
Update: after four days of violence, relief and civil rights workers say that more than 200 people are now known to have died in violence between Christians and Muslims in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna. As the disturbances reached Nigeria’s capital, Abuja (and how many of you thought that Lagos was the capital of Nigeria) the venue for the Miss World competition has now been changed to London. It is estimated that more than 1,000 have been injured and more than 11,000 made homeless in the clashes. Civil rights activists said more than 20 churches and 8 mosques have been burned down in the city as well as a number of hotels.
The competition is scheduled to go ahead on 7 December, but in London.
President Obasanjo needs Muslim support when he goes to the polls in a couple of months’ time and does not want to jeopardise his chances of being re-elected. Where does this leave Amina Lawal? A vocal supporter of a contest that shows women in states of undress? Until Miss World has come and gone? And then what? How can this be allowed to happen in the 21st century?
Britain and the United States are warning of the risk of an attack on the world's biggest camel fair in the deserts of western India and urged their citizens to stay away. The fair, which runs in mid November, draws thousands of foreign and Indian tourists to the lakeside town of Pushkar in the desert state of Rajasthan.
The British High Commission said on Wednesday that although it had received no specific threat against its citizens, it regarded the carnival as “a potential target of terrorist activity”. “Information has been received which suggests that there is a risk of terrorist activity at the Pushkar Camel Fair,” the U.S. embassy in New Delhi said in a statement. “While we have no indication of a specific threat to American citizens, we advise that they should avoid this event.”
Win a Moon Handbook on the San Juan Islands. See www.moon.com for info on Moon guidebooks.
The winner of last month's Moon guide is Mary Attick.
One of the most enjoyable reasons for travelling to exotic and distant places is to sample the delights of the local cuisine. Two of my favourites have been ‘Rat on a Stick’ and ‘Mashed Frog’ only one of which I sampled for reasons that will become clear. Good hygiene practices are always heavily promoted to the travelling public with some extreme recommendations such as cleaning all cutlery with alcohol swabs that rarely make a difference to your chances of contracting a food/waterborne illness. In fact a couple were reported in a scientific paper, who during a round the world trip practiced extreme methods of hygiene yet still contracted ‘One life threatening case of giardiasis, two episodes of diarrhoea and loose stools that persisted for 30 months after returning to Britain’. So whilst good hygiene is always highly recommended is it in fact the type of food that you eat that will cause more problems. Again there is little evidence to support this with one or two extreme exceptions such as raw oysters or very rare meat.
There are also a few other foods that have a high chance of contamination such as salads, especially broad-leafed vegetables such as lettuce. This is not unconnected to the use of ‘night soil’, which is a rather polite euphemism for human excrement, as fertiliser in some regions. Sauces, especially when served cold are a prime source of infection as these are often days old, stored in the kitchen where flies and other insects can quite happily feed on them before they arrive on the side of your plate.
The preparation of your food is the most important factor in its safety. If it is freshly prepared using good hygiene precautions with fresh ingredients, is served piping hot and not reheated you can enjoy your meal in relative safety, even contaminated lettuce when scrubbed and then washed in a weak solution of chlorine or iodine will then be safe to eat.
There is an old adage that will serve you well if applied at all times: ‘Peel it, cook it, boil it or forget it.’
Here are a few extra tips that may help you remain healthy whilst away:
Following some of the basic information given here, it can be seen that local food stalls need not be avoided. But following observation of the chef, the ingredients being used, and preparation techniques it will be a cheap and tasty way to experience the local cuisine. However, don’t forget to check under the table to make sure that he’s not been using the same barrel of water to clean his utensils all day!
For more information, visit the Nomad Travel web site: Nomad Travel or call the Travel Health Line: 0906 8633414 (calls cost 60p per min) to discuss your travel health queries.
There are several reasons why travellers do not visit Colombia, but perhaps they come down to the same thing: the cocaine industry and the people who control it. Even the Colombian government acknowledge that 80% of the world's supply of the drug comes from Colombia, and 70% of this was now grown in the Amazon region.
Colombia is without doubt a very beautiful country with mountains, forests, beaches, colonial towns and cities, but it is just not safe. Everyone, from people who live in the towns and cities to the countryside, including tourists are at risk. It is one of the few countries in the world that the Beetle would not visit herself. The Beetle’s former Spanish teacher, a London based Colombian was herself viciously mugged within minutes of arriving in her hometown of Medellín.
The new Colombian government have just announced a policy called Trees for Drugs, under which poor farmers would be paid to protect the forest instead of growing coca and are appealing for international funding from the international community to help fund a scheme to pay poor farmers to protect trees instead of cutting them down to grow drug crops.
Cocaine-users across the world are helping to destroy the Amazon rainforest, Colombian Environment Minister Cecilia Rodriguez has warned. Dr Rodriguez said the message to the world's drug users was clear: “I should call the attention of all consumers of cocaine that they're are harming dramatically the tropical rainforest of the world, because this is what the world needs for its oxygen.”
A reader asked about places to stay in Cape Town. Cape Town is my favourite SA city and Durban second. I travelled in SA many years ago but here are some suggestions.
The SA government tourist bureau had reasonable trips to the game parks. Go to your city library and check out all the budget books on SA get city maps from SA tourist bureau in your country. Find the location of places that interest you on map and write right on map the address, price, etc. I loved SA and think you will too. Do not be afraid of it.
The Jo’burg City Tourist Information Centre was wonderful. They gave me a map and marked on it the location of places to stay in my price range, how to get there by public transportation and I believe even phoned. I think I had taken some used postal stamps along and asked if anyone there collected stamps and gave them to them. While I stayed at the YMCA conveniently located next to Botanical Garden and I think took both sexes and also included breakfast there were many reasonable place to stay and with the good rate of exchange one can go more upscale if they wish. Also when I left SA I asked at the Tourist Bureau if they had any posters with animals I could have. I still have some hanging in my room.
Johannesburg and maybe even Cape Town had free bus tourist trips on Sunday I think sponsored by Chamber of Commerce each Sunday a different one. I brought elephant hair bracelets to bring back to States as gifts. They take hair from an elephants tail (a rather dangerous job) and make a bracelet. If you wear this you will never be attacked by tigers (not in South Africa – but maybe where there are tigers!) and they don’t weigh much in luggage. Some make these bracelets out of plastic and pass off as elephant hair. If you light a match to them I think the plastic will burn.
I took a reasonable several day sightseeing trip of Kruger Game Park (bigger than some states like Connecticut) that I booked in railroad station at SA tourist bureau there. If any globetrotters have had any military time I usually ask tourist bureaux the location of any military clubs. They are good sources of information, reasonable food and drinks and sometimes you being a visitor members will invite you to their homes of tell you of reasonable accommodations. As I mentioned in SA it was MOTH clubs (military order of tin hats from WWI), Comrade Clubs (British oriented), in Australia Returned Servicemen’s Clubs (all military veterans clubs have some people that were never in military!).
The Carlton Center (tall round skyscraper commercial building in Johannesburg had Soweto town sightseeing trips conducted by a tribesman in a pink bus. Money went to town of Soweto to help them out: reasonable and certainly unusual. In a nutshell go to the State run Tourist Bureaus or government tourist bureau in airport, find out public transportation into town. Have them mark on map location of their suggestions.
Happy Travelling TSgt Wilfred L. McCarty Rtd
If you would like to contact Mac, a 78 year old retired military, and extremely well travelled to boot, he is happy to answer any questions even if his information may be out of date. Mac can be e-mailed at macsan400@yahoo.com