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I am an artist and one who, not surprisingly, is drawn (no
pun intended) to the sun, the sea and a beautiful landscape.
Now, obviously, you don't need to be an artist to
appreciate those sorts of things. I, on the other hand, do
like to make paintings of them and it is because of that I
would like to speak of a group of islands that lie off the
north coast of Sicily. They are called the Aeolian islands
and there are seven of them, steeped in history and wound
into the fabric of myth. That, as they say, is another story,
for now I would like to explore briefly only two of the seven
islands and the first of those is called Stomboli.

Arriving at a small jetty, a long beach of black volcanic
sand stretches away to your right and the tangle of tiny
streets of Stromboli village lie ahead. Jasmine and
bougainvillaea ramble over the garden walls, the narrow lanes
are lively with scooters and “ape” a type of tiny
three wheeled truck. Walkers are there, kited out for the
rocky paths to the volcano summit. Behind you the spiky
outline of islets break the blue water.

It takes about an hour, walking along a pleasant road through
fields, from the square in front of a pretty church, at the
top of the village, to the lower slopes of the mountain.
Another couple of hours on a steep but well-marked path
brings you to the peak, 918 meters up and as you arrive the
craters explode dramatically, shooting stones and hot ash
high into the air. This happens every twenty minuets or so
and it's quite safe as long as you stay on the paths,
strong shoes are a good idea, the ground is hot. These
regular explosions give rise to the term ” strombolic
action ” which prevents pressure building up to a major
eruption.

By day the view of the other islands is stunning.
Particularly from the high ridge on the southern side. Night
hikes with a guide, or a night boat trip to the north-eastern
side of the island offer spectacular views of the red hot
lava flows and fiery explosions.

From there you board the ferry and eventually arrive at
Alicudi. On the map, if you've got one to hand, it is on
the other end of the group, the most isolated and the next
island that I would like to speak of. Uniquely car free,
Alicudi is a near perfect cone, over six hundred meters high
and only 2.5 kilometres across. The rugged slopes are covered
with huge prickly pear cactus, gorse, carob, olive and wild
apricot trees. Surprisingly, in times not long past, over a
thousand people lived on this tiny island supporting
themselves by growing their crops on narrow terraced fields.

Over the years that number has dwindled and the population is
now only about one hundred and life is quiet. Mains
electricity arrived no more than a decade ago and the major
water supply is still rainfall, caught off roofs and
collected in wells on the terrace of each house. It is
charming and quaint.

Hawks and ravens wheel high above and bright green lizards
dash away as you explore. The sea is very clean and rich with
fish, shrimp and shellfish, and, so the locals tell me, ideal
for snorkelling although I've never done it but, from the
look of it, I could well imagine.

At night you can see the lights off Sicily's north coast,
20 kilometres away and on days when the haze has evaporated,
about this time of year, the snow covered slopes of Mount
Etna are visible, the black summit streaked with red lava.
Colour seems to be the theme of these islands, it really is a
painters paradise, so much so that you don't need to be a
painter or an artist at all to appreciate it. The imagery
around you is just so strong and peaceful at the same time,
the countryside so unspoiled. It is just one of those places.
I have painted in country that is beautiful to the eye but
putting it down on paper can be very difficult. One finds
ones self inventing, a bit of red here, a bit of yellow
there, not because it's in front of your eyes but because
the painting needs it and so you make it up. Alicudi and the
other islands are not like that in the least, the place is
there to paint. The hand runs riot along with the eye. To my
mind, not only an easy place to paint but a pleasure and pure
joy, if for nothing else but to just sit and look. A tiny
little haven almost at the end of Europe.

Murray Hubick is Canadian, now living in Kent in the U.K. As
an artist his time is divided between work in the studio,
teaching art and as much travelling as possible. He is
currently in the process of organising an art excursion to
the islands for the coming Christmas/New year and would
welcome anyone interested to join him in having an espresso
overlooking the sea in the sun on New Years morning.

Murray is happy to answer any questions on Sicily, so please
e-mail him on: "mailto:murrayr@onetel.net.uk">murrayr@onetel.net.uk

The tourist season in Oslo starts around the middle of June
and finishes in the middle of September. The
15^th of September, to be precise.

This means that going to Oslo in October is not such a great
idea. The second mistake was not only visiting Oslo in
October but also flying there with Ryanair. A very bad move
as Ryanair lands in Torp, some 100km away from Oslo where
there is only a Ryanair bus to take you the 2 hour journey
into Oslo. Torp airport is small, very small, the size if
Cork perhaps (another Ryanair destination in Ireland) and
there is little to do when your flight is delayed or waiting
for luggage. There is also little tourist info at Torp.

By October, Oslo is beginning to be cold. The first day of
the Beetle weekend, temperatures were around
6^OC and the next day it snowed. If
you don't do cold, this is not the time and place for
you. Take a hat, gloves and a scarf, plus a warm coat and
good walking shoes.

OK, what is there to see: well, the “attractions”
consist mainly of walking around the town (it's small),
seeing the royal palace, the university, the Parliament
building, the town hall, visiting the Arkhus Castle, taking
boat trips, (summer months only), and visiting the 20 or so
museums, none of which have free entrance. That is Oslo in a
nutshell. You will not want to eat, have coffee or go
shopping – it is so prohibitively expensive! Also, the
shops are closed on Sundays and the museums have shorter
opening times so that after about 3pm, on a Sunday, in Oslo,
there is very little to do – so book your return flight
for the late afternoon!

Spending more than a weekend in Oslo might necessitate
considering your finances, maybe a second mortgage: it is
breathtakingly expensive – about 50- 100% more than
central London prices!

The next mistake was to buy an Oslo card. The Beetle could
only find one guidebook in the whole of Stamfords, (the most
wonderful travel bookshop on this earth – funny, that
…), but both the guidebook and the local literature,
of which there was plenty (thanks goodness!) all said that we
should buy an Oslo card and this would entitle us to free
entrance to all of the museums and local transport.

A 2 day Oslo pass costs around £25 or $40 per person.
This allows the holder free entrance into all Oslo museums
and free transport around the city. As museum entrance only
costs around £2.50 or $4, it became a challenge to
visit as many museums as possible in order to get our
money's worth! However, our vfm did not take into account
public transport - when we added in the cost of a day ticket
for the bus, train and tram, (£5 or $8) we just broke
even.

The Kon-Tiki museum is disappointing: small, amateurish with
bizarre exhibits including polystyrene sharks. Very odd. The
Fram museum was one of the better ones: a small-ish A frame
building, built around the original early
20^th century ship used by Amundson
and others in voyages to Antartica. The Viking museum houses
3 10^th century long boats and even
if you are a Viking buff, it'll take you about 20
minutes. The Museum if the Inquisition was plain upsetting.
The Beetle's fave place was Viegland Park, a park a short
tram ride out of town with a collection of sculptures and
statues. The Oslo city museum was dire; about a third of the
exhibits were labelled in Norwegian only! The ski Museum is
one of the most expensive museums to get into –
entrance fee around £7 or $11 but you get to go up to
the top of the old Olympic ski jump. We had to go there to
get value for money and also take in the views of the city!

The transport system is excellent, frequent, clean, modern
and fast. There were many fast food outlets – Kentucky,
Burger King, McDonalds – when you see the prices in the
restaurants, you can start to understand why. Eat well at
your hotel by stocking up on the buffet breakfasts is the
Beetle's advice! The people were friendly enough, but
compared to the last Beetle visit, an embarrassing 15 years
ago, the city was surprisingly dirty, the walls had graffiti
sprayed on, and there were a few people begging on the street
– not at all the clean Scandinavian image the Beetle
had imagined, but then it is a capital city and perhaps
nowhere is exempt from these problems.

If you want to visit Oslo – go in the summer months!
Then you can take boat trips and visit the fjords. For more
info on Oslo, contact the Beetle on: "mailto:Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk">Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

It may be cheap (but not always), but it certainly isn't
clever. And it definitely isn't funny! Flying Ryanair is
not the fantastic low cost and cheerful option that it is
made out to be. First, the low cost airlines (Ryanair, Buzz,
and Easyjet/Go) have made Stansted their main hub.

Stansted is a major pain to get to and from as it is situated
some 68km north of Central London and the principal way, to
get there using public transport, is on the Stansted Express
from Liverpool St in Central London. A return ticket from
Liverpool St in central London costs £23 – not
cheap for the 50 minute journey each way. If you arrive back
into Stansted after midnight, the chances are that you will
have missed the last train, because they do not always wait
for the last flight, so the alternative to travel back to
London is by expensive taxi – we are talking £60+
(or $100+). Now that the Stansted Express no longer runs on
Sundays due to rail works, you have to take a painfully long
coach journey that takes around 2 hours.

Secondly, one of the particularly unendearing habits
practiced by BAA (British Airports Authority) at Stansted is
to be selective as to which flights they decide to put up on
the flight information screens. This lack of info seems to
apply particularly to Ryanair flights. This means that you
could be sitting waiting in the check in area for your flight
check in information to appear on screen and it never does. A
weary frequent Ryanair traveller warned the Beetle that this
happens frequently, so a lesson learned is to occasionally
prowl around the airport to check that your flight hasn't
already started checking in. This happened to the Beetle
going to Trieste, resulting in a late check in, only 15
minutes before the gate closed, reducing the amount of time
available for foraging for duty free chocolate (and other
Beetle fodder) to a minimum!

Thirdly, Ryanair do not give you a boarding pass with a
printed seat number – it is free seating. What a
nightmare, all those people with their sharp elbows.
Dignified British queuing (um, no!) turns out in reality as a
training opportunity for a rugby scrum! Is it really too much
trouble to put seat numbers on a ticket?

Once you have wrestled your way on board, you may think about
reading material to while away the excessive amount of time
spent on the runway awaiting clearance to depart. You'd
be disappointed. There is no reading material whatsoever; no
free newspapers or magazines to read. The staff do hand out a
brochure with pictures of perfumes and silly Ryan Air models
(as if!!) and then when you approach landing, you are
requested to hand them back again! (There really isn't
anything worth reading in them anyway all, unless you like
looking at pictures of grey coloured pearl necklaces.) Buzz,
by contrast have excellent info brochures with information
about your destination, what to see, where to go,
recommendations on where to eat, day trips away etc.

Fifthly, forget on-board entertainment or headphones, music
or films – the only entertainment to be had is to
observe the no frills service you are paying for, for
example, watching the faces of the uninitiated when they are
asked to pay £4 ($6) for a sandwich, and £1.50
($2) for a small and nasty coffee. For her trip to Oslo, the
Beetle took a flask of coffee, much to the envy of fellow
passengers and the annoyance of the air crew. (Buzz do the
best and very drinkable coffee if you have a choice! Also
recommended by our Webmaster!)

Even for someone of limited height, (5'2”), the
seats are cripplingly unrealistically tiny with next to no
leg room. Even the Beetle's knees touched the seat in
front.

Sixthly, presumably also to cut costs, passengers are
responsible for cleaning; whilst I agree with our webmaster
that passengers should be tidy and take their rubbish away
with them at the end of their journey, the Ryanair way is to
have 2 “hostesses” walk down the aisle with a big
bin liner open. You are required to lean over your fellow
passengers and throw your rubbish in the bin liner as they
walk by. Talk about target practice. It is one of my
nightmares that one day, someone will actually use the sick
bag provided (the only object to be found on your seat
pocket) and be too embarrassed to try and throw it into this
walking bin bag, so they'll leave it for me to find,
whilst thinking oh, that's strange there actually is
something in my seat pocket, I wonder what it is!

Seventh: the staff. My theory is that people who work for
Ryanair failed to pass the Aeroflot entrance exams. Rudeness,
ability to glare and make unnecessarily snotty remarks are
all prerequisites for hiring. As for the pilots, flying
Ryanair for them must be their first job out of pilot school.
The Beetle has never, ever had a smooth two tyred landing on
the handful of flights she has been with them.

But my biggest complaint about Ryanair: it's not just the
poor service, which is abominable, it's not the
supercilious staff, the lack of decent coffee or seat
numbers, it's the fact that to cut costs, they often do
not fly into the main airport in a city – and they
don't even warn you about it on booking! The Beetle finds
this practice offensively misleading. For example, if you
want to fly to Copenhagen in Denmark, you actually arrive
into Sweden and have to take a bus journey back into Denmark.

The Beetle recently flew Ryanair to Oslo. It was only after
she had booked the tickets when she investigated how to get
from the airport to the centre of Oslo, that she realised
that Torp airport, where Ryanair fly into is 100km away from
Oslo. At no time was this made clear when booking on-line,
even though the booking was for Oslo. Had this been made
abundantly clear, the Beetle would have gone elsewhere.

Not only is it 100 km away from Oslo, but there is no public
transport after 8pm to Oslo from Torp (and even then, it is a
very expensive taxi ride to the train station) as Torp is a
very small sleepy little town. The Ryanair dedicated coach
cost around £20 or $30 return and took 2 miserable
hours so that a 7.25pm Stansted departure resulted in the
Beetle arriving at her Oslo city centre hotel at almost 1am
– and it is a 1 ½ hr flight and a one hour time
difference. Do the math, as they say! The real airport in
Oslo, where all of the other carriers fly into has excellent
transport connections and takes less than half an hour from
Oslo city centre by train. Never again!

For more info on Ryanair, visit: "http://ryanair.com/">http://ryanair.com/

What do you think? Do you have a fave or hated airline? Want
to get an airport or airline off your chest? Drop the Beetle
a line: "mailto:beetle@globetrotters.co.uk">beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

Lahore is located 288 km from Islamabad. This capital of the
Punjab is a city of gardens, parks and educational
institutions with a rich heritage. It is an ancient town rich
in historical monuments, including Mughal architecture.
Lahore is considered to be the cultural capital of Pakistan.

Places of interest include the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore Fort,
Old City Shrine of Data Ghanj Bukhsh, Anarkani Bazaar, Wazir
Khan's Mosque, National Museum, Sikh monument, Minar
Pakistan, the mausoleum of Jahangir, Nur Jahan and Asif Khan,
Shalimar Garden, Jallo National Park as well as (some two
hours drive from Lahore) there is a world's largest man
made forest Chhanga Manga. Lahore is famous for folk dances
(dhamal) with drum beating in a traditional way at shrines
with a totally different essence of mystic surroundings.
Visiting countryside and villages is an excellent experience
near Lahore. Lahori people are very hospitable and this
hospitality leaves unforgettable impression.

Badshahi Mosque

The city next crops up in literature in connection with the
campaigns of the Turkish dynast Mahmud of Ghazni against the
Rajas of Lahore between I00I and I008. Around this time it
established itself as the capital of the Punjab and
thereafter began to play an important and growing role as a
centre of Muslim power and influence in the subcontinent. Its
heyday was the Mughal era from the early sixteenth century
onwards and, as Mughal power began to decline in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Lahore suffered a
concomitant period of ignominy and political eclipse. It was
here, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that the
Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh declared himself Maharajah of the
Punjab and allowed his troops to desecrate many of the
city's beautiful Islamic shrines- including the Badshahi
Mosque which was, for a while, converted into a powder
magazine. By the time British occupied Lahore in I849, one
writer moved to describe the city as 'a mere expanse of
crumbling ruins'.

Lahore Fort

Nearby, the massively fortified walls of Lahore Fort speak
eloquently of the centuries of passing history that they have
witnessed. The fort antedates the coming of Mahmud of Ghazn i
in the eleventh century, was ruined by the Mangols in I241,
rebuilt in I267, destroyed a gain by Timurlane in I398 and
rebuilt once more in I421. The great Mughal emperor Akbar re
placed its mud walls with solid brick masonry in I566 and
extended it northwards. Later Jehangir, Shah Jehan and
Aurangzeb all added the stamps of their widely differing
personalities to its fortification, gateways and palaces.

The fort encloses an area of approximately thirty acres and
it is possible to spend many hours wandering there, lost in
contemplation of times gone by, trying to reconstruct in your
imagination a way of life that the world will never see
again. The buildings within its walls are a testament to the
gracious style of Mughal rule at its height, in which every
man knew his place and courtly behaviour had been refined
into an elaborately stratified social code. Much of the
architecture reflects this code. From a raised balcony in the
Diwan-e-Aam, or Hall of Public Audience, built by Shah Jehan
in I63I, the emperors looked down on the common people over
whom they ruled when they came to present petitions and to
request the settlement of disputes. Wealthier citizens and
the nobility were allowed to meet their emperors on a level
floor in the Diwan-e-Khas, the Hall of Special Audience-which
was also built by Shah Jehan, in I633.

Shalimar Garden, Lahore

Another magnificent remnant of the Mughal era, also partially
vandalized in the late eighteenth century by the invading
Sikhs, is the Shalimar Garden which stands on the Grand Trunk
Road about eight kilometres to the east of the old part of
Lahore. “Shalimar” means 'House of Joy'
and, in truth, the passing centuries have done nothing to
detract from the indefinable atmosphere of light-heartedness
and laughter that characterizes this green and peaceful
walled retreat. A canal runs the entire 2,006 foot (6II
meters) length of the garden and from it 450 sparkling
fountains throw up a skein of fresh water that cools and
refreshes the atmosphere, making this a favourite place for
afternoon walks for the citizens of modern Lahore. Lahore is
rightly regarded as the cultural, architectural and artistic
centre of Pakistan; indeed, the city is so steeped in
historical distinction that it would be possible to spend a
lifetime studying it without learning everything that there
is to learn.

Hameed's areas of specialisation include documentary
filmmaking, being a conservation leader from the WWF College
for Conservation leadership, graphic design, teaching
multimedia Arts at national college of Arts and he is a
regular travel column contributor to an English speaking
Pakistani newspaper. For more information on travel in
Pakistan, Hameed is happy to answer any e-mails: "mailto:hameed@gandhara.org">hameed@gandhara.org

If you are looking for a friendly, clean cheap backpackers in
Lahore, Hameed recommends the Regale Internet Inn in Lahore.
E-mail: "mailto:Regale_internet@yahoo.com">Regale_internet@yahoo.com

Ask most of the people around you: “where is
Mauritius?” and they probably could not tell you. And
yet the famous writer Mark Twain said: God created Paradise,
and copied Mauritius. I am a Moroccan citizen lady, and by
recent marriage to a Mauritian citizen, and I am now in
Mauritius.

MY WAY is a famous song.

MY WAY OF SEEING MAURITIUS, is another story.

Mauritius is really indeed a beautiful island in the Indian
ocean, near the east coast of Madagascar and South Africa.
The main industry of the country is tourism, and tourists
come from everywhere in the world, and all throughout the
year, as there is really no winter here, and the weather is
always temperate.

The tourism sector is well boosted and organized, and
whatever type of tourist you are, you always have what you
want in terms of accommodation and rates. It is very easy to
get a good accommodation at even 4 Euros per day per person,
in an apartment, studio, bungalow and you can also be
accommodated in 5 stars hotels and suites.

If you browse any search engine over the internet and put
“Mauritius” in your search box, you will be
surprised to the number of information available and to see
the number of companies, selling and servicing the Mauritius
tourist business.

Unlike other places, Mauritius has lots of activities and
places to interest tourists, for example, you get the best of
many lovely beaches, interesting sightseeing tours that will
lead you for example to the unique spot of 7 coloured earth
in the world, situated at Chamarel, beautiful nature forests
and waterfalls.

Mauritius is a cosmopolitan island where there is harmony of
race. On the island, white people, Creole, Hindus, Muslims
and Chinese live peacefully. Each race has its own culture,
and it is very visible while going from one place to another,
seeing the temples, churches, mosques. People in Mauritius
attach great importance to religion.

For the short time that I have been on this island, I have
seen the following:

You should always bargain and never accept the first price
that is quoted to you. Whether it is for the airport taxi, or
whatever goods you purchase, and you will see after the
transaction that it was really worth bargaining.

Lots of native people are attracted to tourists and never
miss an opportunity to make friends with you. It depends of
what you want, but they already know what they want from you!
Many Mauritians are proud to be in the company of blondes!
(Beetle watch out!) Mauritians are very helpful - ask
anything and they will try and help you.

There is also another side of Mauritius, which most of the
tourists do not see: there is another way of seeing
Mauritius, to live as a Mauritian with a Mauritian. You will
see his difficulty for struggling to get his living. The
salaries are low and prices have gone up. The gap between the
rich and the poor has never been as wide as it is now.

Anyway, I am in Mauritius now, and one thing I want to
recommend to you, is that you must not forget to do is to
taste the dhull purri and farata, which is in a sense the
national food, served on the street as a kind of fast food.

Yours from Mauritius

Fatiha Mray.

If you would like to contact Fatiha for information on
Mauritius, please e-mail her on: "mailto:cbspride@intnet.mu">cbspride@intnet.mu

Muir's Tours is committed to travel with concern for the
environment, the indigenous people and of course our clients.
Our name was inspired by John Muir, the “Father of
Ecology”. We are a non-profit organisation with
proceeds going to various charities. Your custom will provide
us with funds that are passed on to various charities and
projects.

We are looking for any help we can get, but most volunteers
fall into one of two categories. The Casual Volunteer
(CV) who will commit for at least a month and the Long
Termer who will stay at least 1 year. We offer the casual
volunteer on most of our projects food and accommodation at
low cost and practical / logistical assistance with travel.
All CVs must pay their own costs - these are minimal (e.g. in
India US$6 / £4 per day for food and basic accom, US$21
/ £15 train - Delhi / Dehradun / Delhi) together with a
registration fee of US$75 / £50 to help with our
admin costs.

The options are quite varied and the more popular locations
are detailed below.

North India - In Dehradun and Dharamsala we are
developing ways to help the Tibetan people help themselves.
In Dharamsala there is a well established craft workshop and
guest house and we are planning to set up others. We also
need people to help promote the sale of crafts back in their
home country. We want to establish homestays - a short
holiday living with local people - in the areas around
Dharamsala and Dehradun. Research work is needed to identify
additional suitable families / homes.

Near Dehradun in the small village of Rajpur is a home
for Tibetan children (mostly orphans) that have
escaped by foot over the Himalaya from Tibet - we want to
support this establishment by sponsoring individual children
for their education. You can help immediately by suggesting
to friends and relatives that they sponsor a Tibetan child,
most of whom are orphans. If you know someone who is willing
to pay $ 21 / £15 per month to educate, house, feed and
clothe a young Tibetan, please let us know.

North central Nepal - near the Tibetan border in and
around the village of Panglang. There is accommodation
available in a local home and in the tourist periods of March
/ May and Sept / Dec there is the luxury of a riverside camp
at additional cost. The camp is a permanent set up which is a
base for rafting and kayaking. Some prior study of the
language would be required as there are interpreters
available some of the time only, but a limited vocabulary
would not be too great a problem.

Mid central Nepal - near the town of Pokhara in a
Tibetan Refugee Camp. There is accommodation available in a
local home or in the community owned guest house. The camp
was set up in 1962 following the Chinese invasion of Tibet
and is now well established with brick homes, a fine
monastery, a school and a carpet factory. The NKF has English
speaking Tibetan staff permanently in the camp, so Tibetan
language study is not necessary.

Mongolia - famous for it's horsemanship and yet it
nearly lost its most precious horse breed. They are probably
the last remaining wild horse species in the world.
Przewalski horses almost become extinct with some horses
surviving is zoo's. After careful breeding they were
reintroduced in several Mongolian nature reserves. Only the
group in Hustain Nuruu Reserve was successful. We need to
monitor the horses to make sure they are adjusting to their
new environment and to gain a better insight into their
behaviour. You need to be able to work without assistance in
tracking down the harems on horse-back and compiling data on
their whereabouts and behaviour. You will need to help us
encourage conservation awareness in the local communities.

Eastern Nepal - The Makalu - Barun area. We have a
number of projects in this area in conjunction with The
Mountain Institute (TMI) and the accommodation would be in
local homes or lodges normally. Some prior study of the
language would be required as there are interpreters
available some of the time only, but a limited vocabulary
would not be too great a problem.

To find out more, visit Muir's Tours website on: "http://www.nkf-mt.org.uk">www.nkf-mt.org.uk or contact
info@nkf-mt.org.uk

Mike is the winner of the Globetrotter Club £1,000
legacy available to members under 30 years of age for the
best independent travel plan.

If you are under 30 and are a member, please visit href="http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/legacy.html">our legacy
page for details of how to apply. It is available to
anyone in the world, as long as they are a member of the
Globetrotter Club, have a great plan for independent travel
and are under the age of 30. Get those plans in!!

Mike is using his travel award to visit Vietnam, Cambodia and
Laos. Here's Part 1 of his travels:

We've been in Thailand now for about 10 days and thought
I should drop you all a line to let you know we're
actually alive and what we've been up to. We spent a few
days in Bangkok which was very different than I expected. It
was so much cleaner and more organised and the Sky train
makes it feasible to get across the city quickly. There is
lots of diversity across the city with huge modern
skyscrapers next to slums.

The Grand Palace is incredible and so are many of the other
sites but the food is by far the best aspect. You can pick up
great noodles on the street for only a few pence. We've
also tried Scorpion, grasshopper and loads of other things
that so far our bodies are accepting. The nightlife in
Bangkok is also a completely new experience and we had a
couple of wild nights out. We're also getting pretty
ruthless with the tuk-tuk drivers.

We caught the sleeper up to Chiang Mai the second largest
city where we had our Visas for Laos and Vietnam done whilst
we went off into the Jungle Trekking. The Trek lasted 3 days
and was hard work but well worth it! We met some hill tribes
and also did the very touristy elephant rides and white water
rafting. The weather here is mixed with some rain but always
very hot and within seconds of doing anything we're
sweating. We then headed up by bus to Tha-ton where we are
now which is a small town only a few kilometres from the
Burmese boarder.

It's been really nice staying here for a couple of days
away from the noise and pollution of Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
The views are amazing and we've only seen two other
westerners here. We've even spent an afternoon chatting
with a group of young monks about philosophy. We're
leaving in an hour by boat down to Chiang Rai where we'll
be spending a while exploring the northern tip of the
country. So far it's all gone really well (touch wood)
the people are very friendly especially when you get out of
the cities. The weather has been good and we've kept away
from trouble and illness.

We should be getting to Laos this weekend we think but
we're just taking it as it comes.

There is an old Namibian saying: “If the Namibian sun
has shone on you once, you are part of the country.”

People who have never been to Africa seem to be under the
misconception that lions and wild animals roam our streets or
that we stay in the bush! This has caused much laughter from
Africans and some even thought that this was just the
opportunity to fool around with someone. But that is typical
African hospitality. People will joke around just to make you
feel comfortable and at ease!

And when you finally convince someone to come and stay in
“the bush” in Namibia, it's amazing to see
their reaction when they arrive, one of disbelief and feeling
that a mistake has been made, is written all over their
faces! You see, our International airport is situated 40km
outside Windhoek and when you arrive there, it truly seems as
if there is nothing! And you do not see the city until you
are basically in it! The landscape is such that it hides
civilisation from a first time visitor!

But once your find yourself in Namibia, you'll be angry
at yourself for not coming here sooner! The country is
exquisite in beauty, cultures, places to see and things to
do! But don't be in a hurry! African time seem to have
found its way to Namibia too! At the coastal town of
Swakopmund (the most visited town in Namibia and the second
largest town) you get a true European feel - people are
laid-back and it seems as if they are on a constant vacation.
But don't misunderstand: business is good - you do get
good service, but this is the place to come and unwind
completely! And we do offer the best cuisine! You can even
experience a true African dinner in Windhoek in a township
restaurant! This is a must do for any traveller! But you must
have a strong stomach! This is not for the faint-hearted!

So what is there to see and do in Namibia? There are
international events, such as championships in sand boarding
and powerboat racing, to mention a few. And don't forget,
we do have the oldest desert in the world, the Namib Desert.
You can ride the endless waves of dunes on a quad bike or in
a 4×4 or hot-air ballooning over the Namib Desert or visit
indigenous tribes or go big game fishing or skydiving or
going on a seal and dolphin cruise or bird watching or take a
safari to see the big 5, or, or, or…(the list is endless!)
Travelling in Namibia you will encounter good hospitality and
good value for money and unspoilt nature scenes where wild
life is abundant.

With is wide variety of inhabitants, habitats and scenery,
Namibia has a lot to offer any traveller! It is fast becoming
a popular holiday destination and with a well-planned
itinerary, you can see an impressive amount of the country
that will leave you breathless with awe and amazement! Even
the most difficult to please will find something to enjoy.

For more information, visit Renate's website at "http://www.mcleodcontours.com">www.mcleodcontours.com

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