Blog

Koh Samui Airport, Thailand is good. No doors here! This has to be one
of the prettiest airports around. Liz, England

Koh Samui, The most tropical airport ever! The most beautifully in all
Thailand:

Sukhothai…I could live there 🙂 Greetzzz Erik Jan, The Netherlands

A site recommended by Erik in the Netherlands, identifies good and bad
airports around the world to sleep over night. Canadian Donna McSherry
has put together a brill web site called http://www.sleepinginairports.net that
allows people to make comments on which airports are good (and bad) for
sleeping in. Donna has allowed us to show which airport web contributors
feels is the best airport to sleep in:

Best Airport – Hands down, the Best Airport Award goes to Singapore's Changi
airport.Unless the Singapore airport were to burn down, it is
and will remain the reining mother of all airports that airport sleepers
simply MUST visit on their sleeping travels. Airport sleepers worldwide
will be brought to tears of joy when they find out all the wonderful amenities
available. Several contributors have raved about this airport and I am
almost inclined to travel to Singapore, just to camp out in the airport.
Best of all, it is comfortable, safe, quiet (so quiet in fact that students
study there during exams) and there's even a karaoke bar. One other
fun fact about this little piece of heaven is the signs all over the airport
that read ” no pets, no skateboarding, no smoking and no studying”.
Check out the Singapore Changi web site before you
go.

More from Donna next month with the runners up!

Write in and tell us your best airport nominations! the Beetle!

Who, you might ask? William Speirs Bruce, let’s call him Bruce,
may not be as famous as other Antarctic explorers, such as Scott and Shackleton,
but he certainly did his bit for Antarctic exploration!

Bruce was from Scotland and headed up the Scottish National Antarctic
Expedition 100 years ago. Bruce wanted a place on Britain's “Discovery”
expedition – which was ultimately to be led by Scott, with Shackleton
among the crew, but he was snubbed by the organisers, who took so long
to make a decision on whether to include him or not, that Bruce made his
own expedition. Bruce was actually an experienced whaler, and he had already
been to Antartica and had spent almost a year at the meteorological station
at the top of Ben Nevis, (cold, brrrr!) training himself in the methodology
of recording weather and climate. So, really, Bruce was the best qualified
person to be on any Antartica expedition with all his polar experience.

But by launching an alternative expedition to the one he’d been
waiting to go on for so long, he annoyed the wealthy and powerful Sir
Clements Markham, of the Royal Geographical Society. So Bruce raised funds
from the wealthy Coats family of Paisley, near Glasgow, and set off on
the voyage he dubbed the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. He took
a converted Norwegian whaling ship, which he named the Scotia. Unlike
Scott, he had no interest in a race to the South Pole – his priority was
to do original scientific research. The aim had been to establish a scientific
research station on the continent, but bad weather prevented that.

Instead, they set it up on a sub-Antarctic Island, called Laurie Island,
where scientists are still working today.

David Munro, president of the Scottish Royal Geographical Society, in
Glasgow, said: “Bruce began to believe that polar exploration was
becoming more of an adventure than a science and it was only the science
he was interested in.

“From that point of view the expedition was a huge success – they
discovered several hundred miles of previously unknown Antarctic continent,
collected a wealth of geological and biological specimens and when they
came back, published six volumes of scientific reports on their results.”
Bruce even took a photo of a Scottish piper dressed in a kilt serenading
a penguin on the ice! Apparently, the idea was that they were going to
play it jigs, strathspeys, reels, slow marches, etc, and see if the penguin
had any reaction.

Some people say that it is because Bruce’s expedition was so well
run, that this is why so few people today have heard of him!

Where is it? South of France, on the Med

Why would I know it? The French Connection? The Count of Monte
Cristo? Beautiful people in the south of France?

How do I get there? It is possible to fly direct, alternatively,
get into Paris, by plane or train (Eurostar from the UK) and take the
train a grand vitesse (TGV) to cover the 700km from Paris to Marseilles.
It only takes 3 hours!

What’s it like? Old, the Phoenicians landed in the natural
harbour around 600BC, had a bad rep with drugs and immigrants from French
immigrants. Nice harbour with cafes, a castle and a large cathedral on
the hill.

Is it safe? Well, it’s a lot different from the image projected
by the French Connection! No, seriously, like all big cities, you stick
to the good areas at night – there’s been a lot of money pumped
into the city to do it up and make it a really attractive place these
days!

What’s there to do? These days, it’s got good shopping,
vibrant nightlife, try out the bouillabaisse (fish stew), get a tan, mix
with the “beautiful people”, eat well, try out good bars,
visit the ballet or the opera, buy some soap (seriously, a Marseille speciality!)

Take the ferry to the Château d’If, (famous from the Count
of Monte Cristo) from the quai des Belges, otherwise, wander around the
Vieux Port, shop, eat, drink….

Would my mother approve? Um, take her shopping, then for a good
bouillabaisse, keep her away from the railway station, then, yes!

OK, when should I go? It’s a bit windy with the Mistral
during February and March and also October and November. Otherwise, any
time, but maybe avoid August – it’s almost national holiday
time.

The central monk body has begun teaching computer operations to monks
in its bid to electronically archive Bhutan’s rich collection of
Buddhist manuscripts, biographies and historical documents.

Twenty monks of the central monk body recently completed a two-week computer
operations course conducted by the National Technical Training Authority
under its special skills programme. Among the skills taught were using
Dzongkha (the national language) fonts with MS Word, typing, editing and
formatting in Dzongkha, typing pechas (scripts) and using templates
for pechas, printing techniques and an introduction to the internet. With
this training the monks will be able to save all the scripts on computers
using CDs as back up storage. The central monk body has already purchased
twelve computers for the project and will soon buy another eight.

This project was personally initiated and funded by His Holiness the
Je Khenpo, His Holiness contributed Nu 1.8 million (£25,289/$36,815
source http://www.xe.com) to the project.

To start with the Drukpa Kagyued text will be compiled. “Some portions
of the text have been lost”, said Karma Lhendup of the central monk
body, “but we have borrowed the text from Buddhist monasteries in
India and Nepal to fill in the missing bits and make corrections where
necessary.” He added that other rare Buddhist texts, which once
existed in Bhutan but are now lost, will also be borrowed and archived.
Important religious texts of other Buddhist lineages like the Nyingma
tradition will be compiled at a later date.

“When we complete compiling, our archive will be accessible to
the public and those interested in research” said Karma Lhendup.

Keep up to date with news from Bhutan by visiting Bhutan’s national
newspaper online at www.kuenselonline.com

This article was taken from the April 2002 newsletter of The Bhutan Society.
With thanks to Lucy Hornberger and Kevin Brackley from the UK.