Tag: December 2004

We are sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is
still e-mailing strong and recently sent the Beetle a
collection of Mac reminiscences including those about a
hotel room with a vibrating bed and an Indian astrologer.

I am reminded in my correspondence about travel of a
vibrating bed I found one time on checking into a budget
hotel in Hong Kong. I discovered after I had checked
in that it was a rendezvous hotel for Chinese older
citizens. No young people checked in but older
Chinese that wanted a romantic interlude. I was slow
to catch on. There were mirrors on the ceiling and
on the wall and I thought gee this is unusual for a budget
hotel. I laid down and thought I was switching off
the light switch and I switched on the switch that started
the bed to rumbling. I at first thought it was an
earthquake. I am always slow to catch on.

I one time was on a bus in Mexico City when there was an
earthquake and I thought it was just a rough road and bus
with bad springs. When I got to my destination
everyone was out on the street from that budget
hotel. I knew a lady there that had been in same
hotel in San Miguel De Allende. The hotel in Mexico
City was run by a religious order something like the
Quakers. She volunteered there and laughed when I
asked her why everyone was out in the street to greet me!
Incidentally the hotel in Hong Kong was called The
Hilton. They swiped the name from the more expensive
Hilton Hotel. It is like calling a hotel The Ritz
when it is anything but the Ritz. I really liked
that hotel though. It had windows you could open and
look out on very busy street. I had been on a
package tour where the four or five star deluxe hotel in
Hong Kong that was included had been so cold and I could
never get the air conditioning off. My cheap hotel
had overhead fan which I liked better. The deluxe hotel
had a mat in elevator that gave you the day of the week
each day woven into the mat. They had a grand piano
on a float in pond but for some reason I was never
comfortable there so at the end of the tour I moved into
the unusual budget hotel and was happy there. It was
in a less touristy part of Nathan Road at maybe in the
direction of Nathan Road. Just ask for the other Hilton.

I just read that a writer wrote that Charles De Gaulle
Airport in Paris is a “Third World Airport” It
brought out some travel memories. After getting
radiation for prostrate cancer I started travelling before
I was completely well. At a stop on a tour bus in southern
India I started to get up from my seat when I realized I
had bled from my rear end onto the seat. I didn’t
want to panic the Indian tourists so decided I would sit
in my seat until they were all off and then run like
hell. All were off but one Indian gentleman who
stopped by my seat on way out and asked if I was alright.
For some strange reason I blurted out my problem. It
turned out he was an Indian doctor who was a cancer
specialist at Sloane Kettering Cancer Hospital in
New York City and just on vacation in India. He gave me
some medicine to stop the bleeding and gave me address of
where he was staying in New Delhi if I needed more help.

I continued on to Paris and at Charles De Gaulle airport I
started bleeding again. Although I had a ticket on
Air France for security reasons they would not let me use
their toilet. I went down the street to a police station
and by hand motions (not an easy thing to do) asked if
could use their toilet. They did not arrest me for
obscenity but directed me to their toilet that they
evidently had criminals use. It had no door so they
at desk could watch the prisoners when in toilet I guess.

I did not want them to know I was bleeding so had to wipe
myself as far as possible out of their sight. I then
went to a Protestant church (closer than Catholic) and by
chance there was an American Protestant minister there and
I asked him if there was a military hospital or American
hospital. He tried to get thorough to American Embassy but
couldn’t to ask them. By this time I had stopped
bleeding and went back to airport and still made flight
out. On that experience I too call Charles De Gaulle
airport a turd world airport.

In New Delhi at the YWCA (they took men as well as women)
I had to share my room with another Indian doctor. This
time a dentist. He said he could tell my fortune but had
to wait until the sun came up in the morning. He
told me I had cancer and that I had been in the military
and some other things that I had not told him (unless I
talked in my sleep) That too was a little strange.

Another experience I had with Air France was that in South
America they have a cheap flight from French Guinea to
France. People from all over South American go to French
Guinea to catch this flight. The flight started in Peru I
believe but I picked it up in Northern Brazil (the town on
the Amazon I cant think of its name) There was only three
of us passengers on this huge 747 and all they gave us was
a stale roll. When I asked if I could have a second one I
was told they did not have enough. So much for French
cuisine. Maybe they picked up their food in French Guinea
along with most of the passengers.

I was only going as far at French Guinea. They had French
Foreign Legion at their airport as guards. They wanted
each of us three to go in separate taxis into town. I
showed them my retired military ID and they let us all go
then in same taxi. Maybe they thought I was an official.
The hotels were full so we had to stay in a French whore
house. People from British guinea would come over to use
it. It was a hotel but the girls were upstairs. We could
not get a room until three AM when night’s
activities were over. I got to my room and I got a phone
call and I was told I had to go to a doctor. I was told
that the girl from that room was sick. I said there has
been no girl in this room. They apologized. I went
down stairs as it was now about six Am and there was the
other two from airplane and we decided to walk into town
to see if we could find open cafe. The other passengers
were a European that ran a taxi in New York City. He would
work long enough until he had enough money to travel
and then he and his wife would travel. The other passenger
was a European writer for Mad Magazine. He was
delighted with our unusual hotel and said: “this is
just like in the movies!” Travel can be fun, well,
at least interesting!

If you would like to contact Mac, he is happy to answer
e-mails: macsan400@yahoo.com

This is the first in a series of trip reports sent to the
Beetle by Globetrotter Steve who is travelling around
South America and Easter Island, the lucky chap! So,
if you are planning trip to South America or are
interested in knowing more about it, you may find
Steve’s trip reports of interest.

The bus to La Serena was comfortable and the road a paved
dual carriageway so the journey wasn’t bad. The
countryside became slowly drier. Near Santiago
roadside stalls were selling bags of oranges, lemons and
avocados which looked very colourful. Nearer La
Serena the countryside was very dry and the stalls were
selling goat cheese.

La Serena is Chile’s second oldest city. It’s
quite a small place with lots of old stone churches. They
often have towers or spires that don’t match the
rest of the building, a consequence of earthquakes I
imagine. A mile away is a big sandy bay developing as a
sea side resort with high rise buildings but it isn't
the season so the beach is empty.

The weather has been cloudy and cool with a cold breeze
from the sea. Yesterday I caught a local bus up the Elqui
Valley to Pisco Elqui. The valley floor was covered with
irrigated vineyards with the vines supported on a lattice
of steel wires to keep the grapes about six foot above the
ground. The leaves are fresh and green at the moment as
they are just starting to grow after Winter. The steep
valley sides were bare rock rising to rugged mountains.
There was little vegetation and you could see the strata
in the rock faces.

At Pisco Elqui the distillery was closed to visitors so I
wandered round, had a lunch and caught the bus back. It
filled with school children and agricultural labourers
going home and I was a bit of a curiosity. Tomorrow
I fly to Arica and then head for the altiplano.

Three days in Arica! It is the most Northern town in Chile
and is surrounded by the Atacama Desert where it never
rains. The driest place on earth.

The flight here went smoothly. After leaving La Serena I
had to change in Santiago, which meant backtracking a
bit. The Santiago – Arica flight called in at
Iquique on the way here which made it quite a long
flight. I had a window seat on the right side which
meant I had views of the snow-capped Andes all the way
here. On the left was the Pacific, and beneath for
most of the journey was desert with occasional green
valleys in the early stages of the journey. When the
plane landed at Iquique I realised my reading glasses were
missing. I’d worn them to look at the
newspaper earlier in the flight but they had
disappeared. I started to panic when they
couldn’t be found but then they were recovered from
about four rows in front. They had slid off the seat
during the landing. It acted as an icebreaker as a
group of elderly Chileans bound for Arica on holiday (The
city of Permanent Spring) started to joke and chat, which
was fun.

The next day in Arica, being a Sunday, everything was
closed except the archaeological museum where they had an
excellent display including four Chinchero mummies, the
oldest ones ever found in the world. The dry conditions
have also preserved textiles buried in graves and they are
some of the oldest existing textiles in the world –
knitting, weaving, braids and knotted items. It’s
remarkable how skilful they were.

Today, Monday, turns out to be a Bank Holiday so again
nothing is open. Am I ever going to be able to leave here?
Having seen most things in town I’ve had time at the
beach. It’s warm and sunny in the afternoon although
mornings have been cool and overcast.

Arica has a lot of soldiers who stroll round town all the
time in desert combat gear. If I find an army surplus
store I want a pair of their desert boots. It also has a
large harbour. The fishmeal plant has closed, which is a
blessing, and there are several large rusting trawlers
berthed at the edge of the town. When I went to the
harbour there was a flock of pelicans snatching up the
waste from the stalls were fish was being cleaned and in
the sea were several marine mammals looking very like
large sea lions, perhaps walrus. When I walked to the
beach there were fish leaping in the sea. They weren't
flying fish, more like mackerel, but they jumped clean out
of the water. I think something below the waves was having
a good feeding session.

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

Stanley: I recently (September 2004) visited my friends in
Veliky Novgorod, Russia and stayed in their flat for about
a week. There is a requirement to submit a entrance
document as well as an exit document upon departure.
The exit document must be stamped on the back to be valid.
My host in Novgorod took me to the local Russian
Government office to take care of the necessary exit stamp
and we were told that we must register at a local hotel
where they will affix the necessary stamp on the back of
my exit permit. The one night at a local hotel cost me 310
roubles for a room I did not need or use just to get the
required exit stamp.

I discussed this procedure with my host who just shrugged
and I understood that it does not make any sense but this
is Russia! It’s best to be forewarned for
tourists travelling to Russia. I had a Russian accompany
me on two trips to the local government office to
translate for me otherwise I would not have understood the
procedure to acquire the necessary stamp on my exit
permit. E-mail: Smsagara2@aol.com

Mac: Retired Military 81 year old Stanley Matachi Sagara
has passed on to me these military tips and experiences.
He has visited 66 countries. “I like to take capped
ball point pens when I travel. It protects ink from
accidentally soiling my shirt pocket (it ruined several
shirts before I switched). Someone is always lacking
a pen when its time to fill out arrival cards. I loan them
my ball point pen but retain the cap so that I have some
assurance of getting my pen returned. If not the borrower
will have an ink stain in HIS shirt pocket.

Carrying buttoned and folded clothes to eliminate wrinkles
in clear plastic zip lock bags makes it easy to locate an
item of clothing and makes it easy to pack and repack when
necessary. The air in these plastic bags kept his suitcase
afloat when his suitcase onetime fell in ocean but did not
sink. (In asking what travellers carry I find that zip
lock bags is one item that is mentioned again and again)
Sagara carries a suitcase with roller blade wheels with
nylon bearings the one type that is dependable for easy
movement over rough services.

He gave me a nylon bath body cloth that he likes. It is 14
inches wide and about '30 inches (l meter) long. It
removes dead skin and is invigorating, comes in hard,
medium and soft. He says it is long enough to scrub the
back completely without having to shower with a friend. In
Japan about US$6.00. In Taiwan and China for about half
that price. Since it is made of nylon it can be packed
damp in another one of those zip lock bags and it will not
mildew.

I did not get this from Sagara but read elsewhere that
some of the French policemen along Boulevard St Germain in
Paris are now on rollerblades (roller skates) and that all
trashcans in Paris are now plastic (zip lock?) bags.

Happy Travelling. Mac