Tag: October 2002

This street was featured on the cover of Oasis'
‘What's the Story? Morning Glory' LP, and is
also home to a tiny market in the heart of Soho.

Soho is that rather strange little area in central London
occasionally described as London's infamous sex district.
This is where you can find (if you are looking!) small rooms
high above the street corners dimly lit by a red light bulb
with a cardboard sign in the window saying
“model” and there are the last of the seedy sex
shops and tourist rip-off peep shows. At night time, you can
see couples walking arm in arm, on their way to one of
Soho's famous watering holes.

In the day time, the area is fascinating and home to many TV,
PR and film production companies and has many extremely good
restaurants and Berwick Street Market. Tucked away between
Oxford Street and Old Compton Street, Berwick Street Market
is renowned for its quality fruit and vegetables. Here you
will find from Mon-Sat, 9am-5pm clusters of cheap and
colourful fruit and veg stalls, as well as lots of off-beat
record shops.

Dotted along the market are some stalls with great specialist
foods, such as fish, cheese, sausages of all kinds, herbs and
spices as well as a fabulous stall selling all manner of nuts
and dried fruits for peckish (hungry) shoppers. There are
some semi-interesting interesting shops that line the market
where you can buy spangly belts, flared trousers and
“recreational” pipes.

Address: Berwick St, Soho, W1

Getting there: exit Piccadilly Circus tube station, walk up
Shaftesbury Avenue and then turn left into Rupert Street. At
the top of Rupert Street, just past the small market area,
cross Brewer Street and walk along Walkers Court, past the
Raymond Revue Bar and you'll emerge into Berwick Street.

Bus Routes: 7, 8, 10, 25, 55, 73, 76, 98

Nearest Tube / Rail Station: Piccadilly Circus Open: Monday
to Saturday 9am to 5pm

In the first article I talked about the best ways to avoid
getting bitten by mosquitoes and consequently how to avoid
catching some of the many diseases they carry. Here we will
look at a few of the most common and well known of those
diseases and the consequences of not using your DEET based
insect repellents and mossie nets properly.

Malaria

This is the one mosquito borne disease that eclipses all
others. With up to 300 million cases of malaria reported each
year it kills more people worldwide than any other disease.
It is actually caused by a parasite that is injected into an
individual along with some of the mosquito saliva, and from
this initial point of invasion within minutes heads to the
liver and sets up home where it develops over a period 7 days
– 1 year. When its ready to leave the liver it may have
reproduced into 40,000 parasites all ready to cause fever,
illness and possibly death within a few days. Every year
about a thousand travellers from the UK will get malaria,
unfortunately a handful of who will become seriously ill or
die. The initial effects of the disease are very similar to a
mild viral infection, headache and general malaise, but it
will rapidly move onto severe fever and chills, profuse
sweating, diarrhoea, stomach pain and cough. At this point if
it is not treated correctly it starts to get nasty. Many
people are reluctant to take medications that can prevent
malaria because of stories they have read about in the media,
or something that happened to a friend of a friend. Those
that have had malaria and recovered (which most people do)
have described it to me as the worst case of flu that they
have ever had and definitely not something that they would
want to experience again, these people invariably take their
tablets wholeheartedly and come back for more!

Dengue Fever

Whereas malaria is carried by a night time biting mosquito,
dengue fever is transmitted by a daytime biting cousin. It is
present in Asia, Africa and Central/South America. It
frequently causes outbreaks in various countries but a fairly
recent outbreak in Brazil was massive and present all along
the Eastern coast, it resulted in thousands of cases
including professional footballers and plenty of tourists and
travellers. In otherwise healthy westerners it is rarely
fatal but can be very serious and even the milder cases can
be a very unpleasant experience. It is known in many places
as ‘breakbone fever' because of the severe pain
felt by sufferers, after about 4 days or so you often get a
very fine rash followed shortly by a full recovery. If you
happen to be a child, elderly, immunocompromised or just
unlucky, the disease can move on to what is known as
‘dengue haemorrhagic fever' (DHF for short), this
will generally happen if you have had dengue before and been
careless enough to get it again. There is no vaccine against
dengue fever at the moment although we are hopeful that there
will be a good vaccine on the market very shortly. It is
therefore important for an individual to reduce the number of
mosquito bites received during the day as well as during the
evening.

Note: Insect repellents should always be applied after
sunscreens, and it's worth bearing in mind that DEET
based insect repellents may reduce the effectiveness of your
sunscreen.

Yellow Fever

This virus is carried by another type of daytime biting
mosquito and is present across all of Sub Saharan Africa and
a majority of South America. It is not currently found in any
parts of Asia though the conditions are right, and therefore
all Asian countries are doing their best to prevent its
introduction. Unlike malaria, it is found in even the largest
urban populations and apart from bite avoidance the best way
to prevent catching yellow fever is to have the vaccine
before exposure. The vaccine takes 10 days to become fully
effective, but following this short period virtually 100%
cover is achieved. When you are vaccinated you are given a
little certificate that becomes your ‘yellow fever
passport'. It is the presentation of this document that
allows travel across borders in Africa, South America or
travel to an area such as Asia when travelling from an
infected country. The disease manifests itself initially as
fever and jaundice (hence yellow fever), but again can move
on to become haemorrhagic yellow fever for which there is no
specific treatment except fluids to treat the shock and
internal blood loss. Yellow fever can be fatal in almost 50%
of non-vaccinated individuals during an outbreak, so that
vaccine is well worth getting.

Japanese B Encephalitis

Although very rare amongst travellers it a potentially very
serious disease present throughout Asia, although it occurs
only very, very rarely in Japan. It is caused by a virus
spread via the bite of an infected night time biting mosquito
that breeds mainly in paddy fields. The most commonly
infected animals are pigs and fowl – wading birds etc
so in order to be in an area of risk you need paddy fields
just around the corner and pigs at your feet. Actually quite
a common sight in Asia but it also tends to have seasonal
outbreaks especially at the end of the rainy season, for
example around May in the southern areas of Nepal. If you
think that you may be in these risk areas at high risk times
there is a vaccination course available of two or three shots
but you really should start this course a minimum of 38-40
days prior to travel.

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 with a medical.

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: cbspride@intnet.mu

Having decided that my hair was in desperate need of some
care and attention, I decided to be brave and try to get my
hair done. The word for hairdresser in Portuguese is
Cabeleleiro (and no, I still can't pronounce it properly)
and because of that I decided to do the coward's way and
go to El Cortes Ingles where I thought I could wing it. Well
after prowling ladies underwear twice (very glamorous and
quite a lot of men wandering around!), I approached an
assistant and managed to make myself understood and she
directed me to a very smart hairdressing salon.

Well the interesting thing was that not one of them spoke
English so I found one who spoke French and the rest was down
to sign language and pointing at pictures in magazines (I
knew that word at least but as for tint, cut etc forget it).
There is no appointment system apparently in this country,
you turn up and just wait. I got there around 4.00 and left
at 8.00!

I decided I was sick of being my wonderful three shades of
red as it had gone a very strange colour in the sun so
thought I would go back to blonde. This was indicated to the
staff by pointing at an assistant with what I thought was a
nice shade of blonde streak! You are given the usual gown but
you have a pocket on the arm into which they put what
treatment you are having i.e. cut, colour, manicure, pedicure
etc.

The backwash is very high tech; the chair has a series of
buttons on the inside of the chair arm which allows you to
raise the lower part of the chair so you are practically
lying down. All the women are beautifully turned out as you
would expect and as it was all a bit of an adventure, I
decided to go the whole hog and had a pedicure and manicure
as well. This is quite entertaining as the manicurist follows
you around whilst you are having your hair washed, cut,
coloured etc. All in all it was a great experience and my
hair looked brilliant as well as my nails. Cost-wise it was
on a par with where I used to go in Bath, but it was a high
class department store.

Some other interesting things about the city are the fact
that the metro system is small and very efficient. It is also
amazingly clean and considering the seven months of hell I
had using the District Line, someone from LT should take a
look. You never seem to wait more than five minutes for one
either. The trams are good fun. The No.28 is one that does a
circular trip and is very handy if you are down in town with
a heavy bag – Lisbon is made up of seven hills and I live on
one of them! The fare is 1 Euro! I got stuck in a tram jam
the other week which as amusing as it means that no cars can
get by as trams have right of way. There were four No.28s in
a row. Before I got on it, I heard one of the old dears
waiting at the bus stop saying that she had seen four No. 28s
go the other way and none hers – reminiscent of the London
bus problem.

I never fail to be amazed as how silly some of the tourists
are over their personal safety here. When I was wandering
around Feira da Ladra (Thieves Market held every Saturday and
Tuesday), you spot them with rucksacks or big bags on their
backs and it is so easy for pickpockets to lift wallets and
purses from them in crowds. Women in particular seem to lose
all common sense – they wear totally inappropriate outfits
and cause great amusement when you see them bright red and
staggering around in shoes suitable for premieres rather than
sightseeing. There again men who are follically challenged
really ought to wear hats!

We went to the outskirts of Sintra (Lord Byron thought it was
wonderful – gardens, palaces etc etc) with a friend who has a
car and investigated a garden centre. Now this was
interesting. There were the usual pots etc but the plants
were fascinating. Large bougainvilleas, lemon trees, lime
trees, climbing roses, herbs etc. Some plants were the same
as in the UK and others were new to me. I settled for pots
(60p for terracotta 23″ ones!), some herbs, a climbing
rose, something called a plumbago and an amazing large
lavender. Inside it has the usual candles, pot pourri,
plastic flowers etc – it's run by an Englishman
apparently. After we had finished there, my friend took us to
Sintra to try a tearoom. Everything in the tearoom was for
sale, from the plates to the pictures. It was a very eclectic
mix and had that “I think we should whisper”
atmosphere that you find in posh tearooms like Castle Combe!
Anyway they do a mean cream tea, which consists of three
scones (warm), jam and cream, a piece of cake and a tea of
your choice – excellent! Afterwards, to walk it all off, we
wandered around Sintra.

Sintra was where the Portuguese Royal Family used to escape
to in height of the summer heat. There are some amazing
houses/villas as well as palaces on the top of mountains and
in the main square. One of the palaces, the Pena, you
sometimes see on tourist posters – it looks like something
mad King Ludwig of Bavaria would have built. It's all
different designs and colours and quite spectacular to get
to.

I have got involved with a local theatre group – The Lisbon
Players – via my Portuguese teacher. She invited Derek and I
to go to a workshop on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.
It was a very entertaining evening and by the time we left, I
had been asked if I would like to get more involved with
them. I have now been made Stage Manager for the production
as well as Task Force Director to help them raise funds and
gain a higher profile.

They operate out of a lovely old theatre – Estrela Hall –
that originally used to belong to the British Hospital. It
has a certain faded glamour (dust) and does quite a few
productions each year. We start work on the production in the
next two weeks and then I shall be thoroughly occupied most
Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday evenings with rehearsals
all the way through to Christmas. Obviously it is unpaid but
it means you meet new people, which is great. Shakespeare is
very popular with the Portuguese and is on their education
programmes so you get a good mix of audience.

Sally can be contacted by e-mail on: Sallypethybridge@aol.com
should you wish to ask her any questions about Lisbon or
Portugal in general.

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 www.mcleodcontours.com

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: murrayr@onetel.net.uk