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On a particularly warm and humid Christmas Eve Santa
Claus came back to Mikindani for the third year running.
Returning volunteer to the Trade Aid project Matt Maddocks
once again donned the red robe, festive hat and fake beard
to bring some excitement to the children of Mikindani. This
time around, the Bedford army truck was adapted to become
his sleigh by the decorative efforts of Emmanuel at the
Boma. As we set off for an afternoon tour of the village,
everything seemed quiet… was about to change.

The sleigh ride was accompanied by the sound of cheesy
Tanzanian pop music and, having rented the most powerful
sound system south of Dar, children all over heard us
coming and came running. There were handfuls of sweets for
the children, who followed the sleigh as it made its way
around Mikindani and then headed on into Mtwara. Many of
them broke into spontaneous dance-mode when we approached.
As we made our way down to the far end of town I saw a
large woman wade through the throng of children like a
massive battering ram, take off her headscarf and try to
use it as a net to catch all of the sweets. We tried to
avoid her reach to get some sweets to the little ones, but
she clearly had to satisfy her sugar fix and blighted our
generosity for a few minutes. The atmosphere was jubilant
and everyone was waving and laughing. Matt was relishing
the role and the sight of him dancing on the back of the
truck in front of hundreds of people is one I will not soon
forget. When he then turned his back and proceeded to shake
his derriere in true African style there were screams of
delight and laughter from the crowd.

We went up the main road towards the boatyard, before
looping round to Jangwani Street by the fish market. In
this densely populated area the number of kids swelled and
we had more than six hundred people following the sleigh.
We then made our way towards the market and veered off to
Haikata, where we were briefly attacked by a swarm of bees
(not from the Boma hive!) before returning to Bomani
Street. We passed the Trade Aid house and made our way in
to Mtwara from there. Apart from subsequently breaking down
in Mtwara whilst dressed like a bunch of prats, the event
was a complete success. It was great PR, although, it being
in Mikindani with a majority Muslim population, I did hear
people asking each other what the significance of a
‘fat red bloke with a beard’ was. Matt was the
star of the show and he pulled off a great performance; one
that, dancing in front of so many people, most of us
pusillanimous souls could only muster after three triple
whiskeys and a jug of Stella. It was a great day for all
and no doubt the children of Mikindani will look forward to
the event next year…

For more information about Trade Aid, volunteers and
their work, please visit their website: "http://www.mikindani.com/">www.mikindani.com

The 2004 Travel Photographer of the Year competition
opens for entries on February 22.

Following a successful first year in 2003, in which
photographers from 34 countries submitted just under 10,000
images, this annual competition for amateur and
professional photographers now features: four portfolio
categories covering every aspect of travel photography; a
Single Image category; a special Young Travel Photographer
category; Student Awards and a remarkable £60,000 prize
package.

Prizes include some travel and the very latest
photographic equipment and software.

The photographer who demonstrates the greatest skill,
diversity and creativity in two different portfolio
categories will follow in the footsteps of 2003 winner
Peter Adams, and earn the prestigious title of Travel
Photographer of the Year and the satisfaction of being
judged the very best travel photographer in 2004.

The winner and a companion will be able to take the
photographic trip of a lifetime with their choice of a pair
of round the world air tickets or two Business Class
tickets to any one destination served by the Star Alliance
network, the global network that brings together 14 of the
world’s finest airlines. Added to this a £2,000
spending spree in a Calumet photographic store, plus Adobe
CS Collection Premium and Video Collection software, to
optimise the images they shoot on their travels.

Photographers aged 16 and under can submit four images
on the theme ‘My World, My View’ which show
what travel means to them. It’s free to enter and the
prizes are fantastic. The winner receives a top of the
range HP Pavilion Photosmart PC with integrated camera
docking station and 6-1 memory card reader, plus a top-spec
HP Photosmart digital camera, photo centric scanner and
photo printer, a unique photography masterclass with
renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite, courtesy of
Light & Land, and Adobe CS Collection Premium
software.

The new 2004 competition categories are:

Peoples and Cultures
Portfolio

This portfolio celebrates humanity in all its many
guises, and the diversity that different cultures bring to
the travel experience. Prize: the brand new,
state-of-the-art Fujifilm S3 Pro digital camera and lens, a
22-day overland adventure for two through Kenya and
Tanzania with Guerba, and Adobe CS Collection Standard
software.

Essence of Travel
Portfolio

This encompasses places, festivals, leisure,
architecture, food, transport, tourism and history. Prize:
the highly desirable new Hasselblad XPan II Pro panoramic
camera; a 12-day fly/drive adventure for two people to
explore Sweden with Discover the World, and Adobe CS
Collection Standard software.

Spirit of Adventure
Portfolio

This category allows entrants to capture the thrill of
adventure – however large or small - that challenges
the traveller. Prize: a once in a lifetime expedition for
two people with Land Rover’s global conservation
partner Biosphere Expeditions to the Tatra mountains in
Slovakia; a custom-built website from web wizards
Resolutions, and Adobe CS Collection Standard software. To
prepare them for their expedition, the winner will also
spend a day at one of Land Rover’s off-road driving
centres.

Living Planet Portfolio

This encompasses landscape, the environment, and
wildlife. Prize: the top-of-the-range Wacom Cintiq 18SX
Interactive Pen Display with TFT monitor; a tour for two
people around the stunning Galapagos Islands on board a
motor yacht with G.A.P Adventures, and Adobe CS Collection
Standard software.

‘Celebration’ -
The Single Image Category

Entrants can submit one beautiful, uplifting image that
captures the theme of ‘Celebration’ within the
context of travel. Prize: a 10-day holiday for two to the
photogenic Islands of the Bahamas, plus Adobe CS Collection
Standard software.

Special Awards

Awards will be presented for the best three portfolio
entries by students in full-time education, with the
winners receiving leather print books from Plastic
Sandwich, made in their choice of size and format and
personalised with their names.

In addition, a number of special awards from Avery and
Tribes Travel will be given for individual images nominated
by the TPOTY panel of expert judges and the general public
visiting the 2005 TPOTY exhibitions. Details will be
announced later this year.

A chance to give something
back

Another new element for TPOTY 2004 is the option to make
a £1 charitable donation with the entry fee. The funds
raised will be split between Tourism Concern and The Tribes
Foundation. Tourism Concern is dedicated to campaigning for
change in the world’s biggest industry - working to
ensure holidays are as good for the people living in our
holiday destinations as they are for us. The Tribes
Foundation helps indigenous communities, preserves cultural
heritage and ecological biodiversity in areas impacted by
tourism outside the UK and encourages education in global
cultural diversity within the UK.

Entry fees and closing
dates

Photographers can enter as many categories as they like,
as many times as they like. To compete for the title of
Travel Photographer of the Year 2004 they must enter at
least two different portfolio categories. The fee structure
has been revised for 2004, making it more cost-effective to
enter. Entry costs from just £5 for one portfolio category
or up to four entries in the Single Image category, is
completely free for under-17s and there is a discounted
flat rate fee of £5 for students.

Entries are now open, and close on September 17, 2004.
Full information and entry forms are available from href="http://www.tpoty.com">www.tpoty.com or by sending
a stamped addressed envelope to PO Box 2716, Maidenhead,
Berkshire SL6 7ZN, England.

The capital Port Moresby has a fairly poor reputation,
in part deserved, but then, all large cities have their
problems. Having said this, Port Moresby is not a large
city, it is hard to really say where the centre is, as it
is small-ish but sprawling. There is a down town of a type
where there are a few multi storey buildings, including the
infamous Deloittes building. Last year when I was there, I
read a newspaper account that said that this building had
been built three times. The first two times, the
construction was awarded to a firm who took the money and
went bust. The final time, at hugely escalated costs, it
was finally built and houses the few accountancy firms that
remain in Port Moresby and other businesses. Shell have
offices around the corner.

This starts to highlight the real problem with PNG as a
whole: crime, environmental degradation, corruption and
cronyism. There is a system called won tok, whereby your
won toks do you a favour, such as getting you a job, and
this holds you in their debt and you are expected to do
favours for them. For example, if someone wrongs you or
your family, you can call on your won toks to right the
wrong.

And this brings me to discuss law and order. The
population of PNG is 4 million, and there are around 400
police officers. The geography of the area is interesting.
On the other half of New Guinea that is PNG, as opposed to
Indonesian, there is a large mountain range separating the
north from the south. There are no roads that connect the
two coasts. The interior is very mountainous and remote.
There are a collection of outlying islands, including New
Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville and many smaller
islands. This geographical dispersion and the remote
interior has resulted in many different tribes of people
and over 700 languages.

Many people from the highlands and islands, unable to
make ends meet, or ambitious for a better life migrate to
the cities, such as Port Moresby, Lae, Kavieng seeking
work. These people are referred to as settlers, and they
build their own houses from wood, corrugated iron, palm
leaves, plastic bags or sheeting etc and maybe cultivate a
little land by growing mangoes or coconuts etc. In Port
Moresby, there are many settlements which an outsider
cannot and should not go into. The nearest comparison I can
think of are the shanty towns in Rio or the townships
around Johannesburg. They are self policing or completely
lawless, depending on which way you look at it.

Over Christmas 2003, I was in Madang, a very pretty
natural harbour town on the “main” land. The
government had previously issued several warnings to the
settlers there that they should leave and go back to their
original home land. Few settlers did leave. Over Christmas
it became real, and the police were deployed to forcibly
evict the settlers from their homes, by burning down their
houses and chopping any cultivated trees down. It was a sad
sight. There were reports that the police were stealing
possessions from inside people’s homes before they set fire
to them. In Madang, many of the settlers had been there for
over 20 years, and the mood of the people I spoke to was
that the government should have laid on some transport or
means of helping people to return to their original
homeland. I since read a newspaper report that said that
the PNG government had refused to allow the Red Cross to
distribute aid to the displaced settlers. It was not a good
time and I imagine is still on going. I know this happened
in provinces other than Madang.

There is a small ex-pat population in Port Moresby and
they live in compounds. I visited the Shell compound, and
was quite taken aback by the security: double gates to get
into the compound, razor wire all around, watch towers,
guards and guard dogs, electric fences and inside each of
the 6 homes, huge sturdy rape gates on the top floor to
prevent entry into the bedrooms.

The majority of expats are Australian and this is the
closest sizeable country. Many companies have pulled out of
PNG as they say it is too difficult to do business there -
problems with land title, bribery and corruption and high
levels of crime.

The Australian High Commission sits on a hill and the
houses for their staff are right beside it, and look like
Lego buildings. Locals call this compound “Shit
Scared Alley”. I spoke to some of the Australian High
Commission staff and they said that they barely leave the
compound. Car-jacking is common place, rape, sexual abuse
and incest are distressingly too common. All men own
machetes. There did not seem to be too much of a gun
culture, but they certainly exist. AIDS is not a huge
problem yet, but it is there. The female expats, mostly
wives of ex-pat workers are advised to be extremely careful
where they drive and not to fill up at petrol stations
alone for fear of being car-jacked. The modus operandi is
to rape a woman in front of her husband or son and make
them watch. This was every ex-pat woman’s biggest
fear and I sensed a huge feeling of vulnerability.

This probably paints a fairly grim picture of Port
Moresby, but it is at least realistic. I stayed there a
week by myself in Christmas of 2002. I stayed at the Magila
Hotel which was cheap, friendly, clean and safe. It was a
fairly transient sort of place, and not in a good part of
town, being in Six Mile - called Six Mile because it is 6
miles from the centre. The motel is surrounded by razor
barbed wire and has a watch tower and 24 hour guards -
common for Port Moresby. I did not go outside the motel at
night on foot - you really don’t walk anywhere in Port
Moresby, but I did go by car with friends I made, into town
and had meals there etc.

Everyone I met was friendly, polite, interested in why I
was in PNG and I have never encountered any problems
myself. The diving in Port Moresby is excellent and there
are 2 dive facilities - PNG Dive, where I was, and a
resort, the Loloata resort. There are 2 places where
ex-pats go: the Yacht Club, with good views, a cheap bar
and decent food, but predominantly frequented by ex-pats,
and there is another place where ex-pats married to local
women tend to go. Rather uncharitably, a friend of mine
said you could always tell who would go there because they
have a red nose through drinking too much.

There isn’t a huge amount to do in Port Moresby and I
would not recommend it to the visitor other than to dive.
There is an interesting designed Houses of Parliament, and
my favourite place is PNG Arts. It is a large shop that
sells handicrafts made by people from all over PNG, from
the river Sepik where the work depicts spirits in the form
of crocodiles, from the islands and from the highlands. I
love it there and have spent many an afternoon browsing
around the masks, ceremonial daggers, tables, wooden
crocodiles and yes, they do make penis gourd holders - the
shop told me that the Japanese are the largest customers of
these! The people who work there are great (especially Ken,
the Canadian who went to PNG as a bet in the 1960s) and the
man who owns it is local. They can tell you who made the
artefact you are interested in and can ship direct to your
home country. I did this last year and had 2 crates sent
back to London - it took 5 months to arrive, but it did
arrive!

Infrastructure in Port Moresby is better than it used to
be. Many of the roads have been repaired - in December 2002
when I was first there, there were huge craters throughout
all of the roads which created small mini roads around
them! Taxis are very expensive and you need to make sure
that the driver knows exactly where you want to go.
Electricity is mostly on although the water is not safe to
drink from the tap, bottled water is widely available. If
you need to stay over in transit, the Airways hotel is
pretty good, and you can get a free transfer from both the
domestic and international airport as they meet every
flight, even if you don’t stay and just want to have lunch
or dinner there or sit by the pool. It has a nice green
setting, overlooking the airport, 5 minutes drive away on a
hill and they do good food.

Bride price is still paid by many people. One man I met
who helped with the dive operation I was at last year told
me how much he paid in bride price for his wife. It seemed
like an awful lot (won toks are expected to chip in as well
as the entire family) and I said jokingly that his wife
must be a princess. He solemnly replied that yes, she was a
princess.

Once you get outside Port Moresby then you can then
appreciate the true beauty of the country and the
friendliness of its people.

Where exactly is the Black Sea? It is formed by three
rivers: the Danube, the Dnieper and the River Don and is
bordered by six countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey,
Georgia, Russia and Ukraine. The population of the greater
Black Sea basin is more than 160 million.

Nobody really knows why the Black Sea is called such.
Some say that it gained its name from sailors and pirates
who were struck by its dark appearance when the sky turned
black with storm clouds. The Ancient Greeks called the
Black Sea the Scythian Sea, after the not so friendly
tribes who lived on its shores at the time. Shipwrecked
sailors could generally expect no a hard time from the
Scythians, who raided the wrecks and were said to have made
wine goblets out of sailors’ skulls. The Greeks also called
it Pontos Axenos - the inhospitable sea - until they
settled in Crimea, after which they changed their minds and
called it Pontos Euxenos: the hospitable sea.

The Black Sea is very deep (1,271m at the centre) but
it’s less salty than most oceans. It began life as a fresh
water lake about 22,000 years ago. About 7,000 –
9,000 years ago, global warming melted glaciers and the
polar ice-caps, sea levels rose and eventually the
Mediterranean overflowed through the Bosporus, turning the
lake into the Black Sea. Many archaeologists think that
this catastrophic event was in fact the Noah’s Flood of the
Bible.

The sea is unique in having two layers, an oxygenated
upper layer, about 200m deep, with fish life, and a `dead’
lower layer, where until recently nothing was thought to be
able to survive.

A peculiarity of the Black Sea is the bi-directional
current where it flows through the Bosporus straits on its
way to the Mediterranean. The surface current flows
westwards through the straits into the Sea of Marmaris, but
there is a deep current which flows simultaneously in the
opposite direction, back into the Black Sea.

There are plenty of beaches in The Crimea, of Florence
Nightingale fame – some 517 km of beaches - mostly
small pebbles and some black volcanic sand. Many beaches
are public, and the private ones owned by hotels and
sanatoria are usually open to non-patrons at a price of
around 3 Hryvnias (£0.40p or $0.56 cents) per day. There
are also naturist beaches near Koktebel in the east.

“Artichoke. It’s like a hard, rough, green
flower.” The gears in my head whirred away as I
searched for a description. All around me, serene faces
carved out of stone blocks smiled. “What does it
taste like?” asked Kay with pen poised. I looked to
the grey sandstone heads for inspiration and replied,
“A bit like… Cabbage.”

During the week, the Bayon and nearby stone temples of
Angkor resemble anthills crawling with travellers. Two by
two the tour groups scurry around the ancient monuments, up
the steep sides and in and out of cool corridors,
collecting knowledge, photographs and memories. On Sundays,
the 200 carved faces of Avalokiteshvara smile smugly at
young Khmers carrying notebooks collecting English
words.

Kay is 13. He lives in the small village of Kok Tmey
just outside Siem Reap. He goes to the temples of Angkor
every Sunday to find travellers willing to spend a few
minutes teaching him their language. That week his homework
was to learn how to spell and pronounce a list of 28 fruit
and vegetables.

In return for running through the list, Kay lead me to
the bas-reliefs at the bottom of the Bayon where the first
level of carving depicts daily life in Cambodia. “My
uncle has one of these on his farm,” said Kay
pointing to an ox-cart in a picture of Khmer soldiers off
to battle. “And this is the village where the boat
comes in from Phenom Penh,” he said, pointing to a
panel that included a fish market. “Look at the
chickens fighting and the old men playing.”

Kay tugged at my shirt sleeve. “Come this way.
This is my favourite.” We walked to the western
corner where a slightly faded panel showed a Khmer circus
complete with tight-rope walkers and a giant lifting three
other men.

From that point on ground level, the Bayon was a jumble
of sandstone blocks. As we climbed knee high stone steps to
the third level, the giant stone faces appeared in front
and in profile, smiling above and all around. I said
goodbye to Kay and left him and his school friends
interrogating a Canadian girl about the taste of a
guava.

“Custard Apple. It’s like a small soft
coconut with green skin,” I explained as I sat in a
deserted courtyard inside the Preah Khan temple. Bun, one
of Kay’s schoolmates with the same homework, nodded
and pointed to a small white flower growing in the shade of
the rock. “Did you see the movie ‘Tomb
Raider’?” he asked. “The girl found the
entrance to the temple by finding the flowers. Just like
this.” I looked closer at the tiny orchid, not much
bigger than a thumbnail with five delicate petals in the
shape of a star. It was a great reward for sitting still.
We ran through the list of fruit and vegetables and then
Bun showed me through the ‘Sacred Sword’
temple. We walked down the main corridor towards the
central sanctuary. “Look how the doors get lower as
we get closer,” said Bun. “This is to make you
bow before the statue of Buddha.” Bun had no problems
walking through the doorways as they shrank, but I could
not pass through them without bowing my head.

The Preah Khan temple covers an area of 700m by 800m. As
Bun led me over a pile of collapsed rooftop, I was glad
that I had a guide to show me the hidden details, like an
intricate carving of Shiva holding up the mountain and a
queen statue that I would never have found on my own. We
wandered down lost corridors to the southern gate where two
headless statues stood guard against the jungle.
“They guard against the monkeys,” laughed Bun,
as the screeches of gibbons got louder in the treetops.

Bun and I made our way to the South Eastern corner of
the temple where the Banyan trees had taken over from the
stone. The thick roots of the trees gripped the 12th
century sandstone blocks like the talons of a mythological
bird of prey, providing a base for the trunk that dwarfed
the remaining towers of the temple. “The jungle tree
and the temple need each other,” said Bun, “The
tree can not be removed. It holds the pieces
together.” He walked with me to the north gate where
he was delighted to find a French couple to help him with a
postcard he had been sent.

“Persimmon. I don’t know. I’ve never
eaten one. I think it might be a bit like this one,”
I said, pointing to where passion fruit was written on the
sheet. I sat with Jac under the cool canopy of trees
covering the crumbling ruins of Ta Prohm. Jac pointed to a
row of doorways topped by banyan tree roots. “That is
where they filmed ‘Tomb Raider,” he said. I
could see why. Unlike most of the other temples around
Angkor, Ta Prohm has not been restored. Instead it has been
left at the mercy of the jungle.

Academics argue about the merits of letting the site
decay to satisfy tourists who want to feel like Lara Croft
or Indiana Jones. Some say it is selfish to want to
discover the overgrown entrances as if for the first time.
As we sat in a green shady corner, listening to the birds
and lizards rustle in the jungle, it was hard not to marvel
at how nature had reclaimed the space.

We clambered over stones that had collapsed under the
weight of foliage and in and out of courtyards that had
been sealed on all sides. We slipped on moss and lichen
still eating away at the carved stones and I tried to
imagine what the place would have been like when 80,000
people had lived and worshipped there.

Another word was collected on the trek out the long
sandy track to the eastern gate, Jac jumped backwards as a
foot long shoelace came out of the grass and started to
slowly cross the path. “Is it a snake?” asked
Jac as I leaned closer. “No. We call it a
worm,” I said as he furiously wrote it down in his
notebook.

“Adventure. It’s a long and exciting
journey,” I explained to Tola, a monk who lived in a
monastery not far from Angkor Wat. Like most monks, he had
studied English for a long time, but he still came to find
tourists on Sundays on the third level of the main temple.
We sat and looked up at the steep steps that led to the top
of the central tower. Each step was about a foot high but
only just wide enough to fit a foot sideways. “You
get used to it,” said Tola, “I don’t even
think about the height, I just run down.” He pointed
to the summit as three Khmer boys threw their sandals off
the top and onto the flat stones in front of where we sat.
Then they ran, face first, down the steps without
faltering. Tola grinned, “There is a hand rail around
the other side.”

Tola met me at the top of the central tower. He climbed
in bare feet straight up the side, while I used the thin
metal handrail to pull myself 31m to the top. Once there,
Tola pointed out the significance of the design of the
temple. “This tower is Mount Meru,” he said,
referring to the place where Hindu cultures believe the
gods reside. “That is the ocean,” he continued,
gesturing out over the walls to the moat of still dark
water that forms a 1.5km by 1.3km boundary to the complex.
We walked around the top level, traditionally reserved for
Kings and high priests, until we were facing the paved
pathways and main gates in the west.

The sun was setting and the Angkor sky was orange,
tangerine, melon, paw-paw and blueberry. There was a colour
for almost every fruit on the homework sheet…

This article can be found on Dave’s website: href=
"http://www.worldsurface.com/browse/entry.asp?entryid=5974">
http://www.worldsurface.com/browse/entry.asp?entryid=5974
"mailto:dave@dmfreedom.com">dave@dmfreedom.com

Globetrotters Committee member Tony, a professional
photographer and journalist writes:

Going home in a black cab in London, not surprising, but
being dropped home by the ‘Minister Of Culture’
certainly was. Gilberto Gil a great Brazilian singer and
now a Minister, was in London to give a presentation in the
‘Collyer-Bristow Gallery in Bedford Row.

He was here to launch ‘ondAzul’ founder of
the charity that helps bring clean and unpolluted water to
many parts of Brazil a country that has the most water in
the world but at the same time some of the most
polluted.

I was invited by Joao Fortes, a good friend who had
helped me arrange permission to go and visit
‘Yawanawa’ tribe in the deep Amazon some years
ago, so I have first hand experience of many trips to
Brazil.

"http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/newsletter/pictures/200402_gilberto_gill.jpg"
class="pic" alt="Gilberto Gill" width="200" height="141"
hspace="5" vspace="5" border="0" align="left" title=
"Gilberto Gil picked up his guitar and this place became the Latin Quarter." />
A very Brazilian affair in a very old established English
Lawyers Gallery. After a short presentation, a video on
flat screens round the Gallery, Gilberto Gil picked up his
guitar and this place became the Latin Quarter. He slowly
built up this very different audience of Diplomats, M.P.s,
Environmentalists and Lawyers into a group with many of
them singing along with some of his songs especially the
ones he wrote while in exile in London. The pace quickened
and joining in was Jim Capaldi the well known drummer, but
not with drums but making his mouth a bass and drum rhythm
section and he certainly helped drive it along. One of the
Partners told me the place had never been so alive and with
the wine flowing, the music playing, this did not feel like
a winter night in London but a music bar back in the warmth
of Rio. Sometimes you can travel without going
anywhere.

So this is how after BBC World Service and other
interviews, I found myself in a cab with Joao and Gilberto,
heading back to town. Very, very early flights for them and
a lie in bed for me. If you’d like to find out more
about Gil, you can visit his website: "http://www.gilbertogil.com.br">www.gilbertogil.com.br

For more information, see; "http://www.ondazul.org.br/">www.ondazul.org.br

March is Brazil month in Selfridges, London. "http://www.selfridges.com">www.selfridges.com

La “noche porteña”. Buenos Aires at night.
If you are planning to come to Buenos Aires, and you think
to go out during the day and rest at night. Please, forget
it!!!!!!!.

First, make an early visit to some museums, do a city
tour, go shopping in your spare time. After a quick lunch,
visit a market, historical places (a lot in Buenos Aires).
But you come back before it gets dark to have a bath,
change clothes, have dinner and go out again. Don’t
try to schedule your return, it will be quite useless: you
just won’t make it.

Below are just some of the options available:

Bars and pubs, Concerts,
Discos, Cinema and Theatre, Tango shows
(unforgettable!!!)

In Buenos Aires, you know how the activity begins but
never when it ends. Alternative options for bars and pubs
can be with live concerts, Tango, Flamenco, jazz and blues,
or attend castings, having a theatre play or watch a
bizarre cinema, some offering table games, billiards,
different sports, karaoke, office bars, literary, design
and astrological pubs, cybercafes, tapas and Irish pubs,
others (this is an important tip) the famous Argentine
wineries (wine bars are spread all over the city).

If you want be active, you can keep on dancing at after
hours, go to the cinema or theatre or visit our traditional
book stores, located in the famous Corrientes Avenue. La
Boca, Palermo, San Telmo, Downtown, Recoleta, Barrio Norte,
Retiro, Monserrat neighboorhoods are all good for these
kinds of activities.

And before coming back your hotel (about 4, 5 or maybe 8
in the morning,) you have to imitate one of our customs:
for young people and not that young, is to have a delicious
breakfast in a pub, in a bar or in a gas station.

SAFETY: Buenos Aires has experienced increased
muggings and thefts in the past two years. Visitors should
only take taxis marked “Radio Taxi.” Be extra
cautious when travelling in Abasto.

LANGUAGE: English is not widely spoken. Basic
Spanish, like the ability to ask for directions, is very
useful. The Evita Museum has signs in English and Spanish
but other museums do not.

SEASONS: Expect hot and muggy weather and higher
prices December through March, which is Argentina’s summer.
The best times to visit, both in terms of weather and cost,
are spring (September to November) and fall (April to
June).

Nélida G. Vilais the General Coordinator and Spanish
teacher at the Buenos Aires Centre - Learn Spanish in
Argentina. They can organise programs of immersion in
language and culture in Buenos Aires & Patagonia. For
more information, see:

"http://www.buenosairescentre.com.ar">http://www.buenosairescentre.com.ar

What is it: cholera is an acute, diarrhoea
illness caused by infection of the intestine with the
bacterium Vibrio cholerae via contaminated drink or
shellfish. Transmission happens through contaminated water
and food.

How do I get it: cholera often occurs in epidemic
areas where there is poor sanitation and occurs regularly
after natural disasters and war. Outbreaks are known to
occur along the Ganges river and in Bangladesh.

What happens if I get it: around 90% of cases are
mild to moderate and hard to distinguish from the usual
sort of traveller’s diarrhoea. In more sever cases,
cholera is characterised by profuse watery diarrhoea,
vomiting, leg cramps, rapid loss of body fluids,
dehydration, shock. Without treatment, death can occur
within hours.

Diagnosis and treatment: a stool sample will show
whether you have cholera. It can be simply and successfully
treated by immediate replacement of the fluid and salts
lost through diarrhoea. Patients can be treated with oral
rehydration solution, a pre-packaged mixture of sugar and
salts to be mixed with water and drunk in large amounts.
This solution is commonly used to treat diarrhoea. Severe
cases may also require an intravenous drip with fluid
replacement. With prompt rehydration, less than 1% of
cholera patients die. A 6 day course of the antibiotic
tetracycline can clear things up very quickly, although
rehydration is the more important course of action.

How can I avoid contracting cholera: the usual
advice as per traveller’s diarrhoea - drink water
that you have boiled or treated with chlorine or iodine,
avoid ice, eat food that has been thoroughly cooked and is
still hot, only eat fruit that you have peeled yourself,
avoid undercooked or raw fish or shellfish. Avoid salads
and be careful with foods and beverages from street
vendors. There is a vaccine, but this is no longer
available in the UK because health authorities believe that
it is ineffective.

Ryanair have added nine new routes to its service across
Europe. Four of the routes will operate from London’s
Stansted Airport: to Linz in Austria, Bari in Italy, Erfurt
in Germany and Jerez in southern Spain. Two will link
Stockholm with Rome and Milan, two will fly from Frankfurt
to Reus, near Barcelona, and Tampere in Finland, and one
will link Brussels with the Spanish city of Valladolid.
This will take Ryanair’s total number of routes to 146 from
11 bases in Europe, the airline said in a statement. Only a
month ago, Ryanair was Europe’s biggest airline by market
value, now this title goes to German airline Lufthansa.

Ryanair has been ordered to repay £3million - about a
third of the £9million ‘discount’ it was given from 2001 to
encourage it to fly to Charleroi after complaints that
Brussels Charleroi Airport made life easier for Ryanair by
offering cheap fees and subsidies that were not on offer to
competitors. Belgium’s Walloon region gave Ryanair EUR3.8
million euros (USD$4.8 million) in 2002 for publicity and
to subsidise a few very low cost, highly publicised fares
for a few seats on selected flights. The ruling stemmed
from a complaint by Britair, a subsidiary of French
national carrier Air France, which said it was forced to
cancel its London-Strasbourg link as a result of unfair
financial aid to Ryanair. Ryanair had suspended the service
in September pending the outcome of the appeal.

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, threatened
to axe any loss-making routes. The airline said fares would
rise by up to £12 because of the ruling. With the average
Ryanair one-way ticket costing around £25, Mr O’Leary
threatened: “This could double loads of
fares.”’

And Ryanair’s latest initiative, just when you
thought the service could get no worse… Ryanair has
confirmed it is taking “no-frills” flying a
stage further by ordering a fleet of planes without
headrests, no seat pockets, reclining seats or window
blinds. This would allow potential savings of more than
£1.3m a year by removing all remaining
“non-essential” items. They are also said to be
looking at the possibility of asking passengers to carry on
their luggage, cutting baggage handling fees.

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.

Sophisticated traveller that I am, I almost panicked
here at the Malaysian border coming from Thailand. The
night before on the train a man collected our passports for
processing and gave us no receipt. Mine was not at the
Malaysian border. I ran from Thai border officials to
Malaysian and neither had it. Finally one of them found it.
Later a Malaysian official came on the train to
“visit” with me. I think the many visas in my
passport made me suspect.

In Kota Tingu, Malaysia, I asked a seamstress if she
could make me a secret designed undershirt with a secret
pocket (no secret anymore) to hide valuables. I asked her
when it would be finished and when I should pick it up. I
thought she said “Today, three o clock”. When I
returned at three I discovered she had said. Two days,
three O Clock. In two days I was in another country. In
India I had a pocket made in my shorts (also a secret
pocket and again no secret) I sometimes wear athletic
soccer shorts. They have a pocket in them that has a shield
to protect your private parts. I put a plastic bag with
money in this pocket. I feel that if a robber got down to
looking in my shorts that I would be lost anyway. I also
carry valuables in many different places so as to not be
carrying all my eggs in one pocket.

Johure Bahru: a sign “Wet Market”. Wet
market means they hose down the floor in the market where
they have fish.

In my travels I have often met individuals that have
been travelling for years. Sometimes taking a job teaching
English or some part time job for a while and then moving
on. I met a Swedish man (these individuals are usually from
Australia) that had spent some time in Malaysia. He had
brought one hundred video games and was on his way to Kula
Lumpur to catch a Russian Airline Aeroflot plane to Sweden
(he says is lousy: the airline not Sweden.)

He pointed out to me in the station some transvestites -
Malaysian men dressed as women. He said to look at their
big adams apples in throat and their big feet. I asked him
what he did for a living. He said “I live.” Can
you live on reselling video games alone? He was maybe 35
and dressed respectfully.

In a Malaysian paper there was an article about a
visitor to the Philippines being drugged, robbed and left
in a cemetery. I asked the Swedish man if he had ever had
anything stolen. He replied “My wallet and a gold
chain I wore around my neck but that his girl friend might
have stolen them.”.

Next month, Mac discusses language.

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