Struth! Naples talks garbage

STRUTH !   

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says holidaymakers and business travellers heading to the Italian city of Naples are being warned of a health hazard: thousands of tonnes of rubbish are piling up in the city streets because of a dispute over a new landfill site.

Protesters are allegedly blocking garbage trucks from doing their rounds, and residents and business houses whose bins and skips have filled are now simply dumping their refuse on the streets.

The new landfill site will reportedly be "the biggest in Europe," with objectors saying their children will be forced to grow up in a "world of rubbish and health hazards."

Local mayors have called for the scheme to be abandoned, but the Italian government says it will go ahead, and that any concerns about odours and health hazards are baseless.

The Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi says police are about to escort garbage trucks into Naples so that "all the rubbish in the streets will be removed within the next two weeks."

And he's been warned by the European Environment Commission that if its not, Italy will face huge fines for allowing the street pollution.

EMPTY TABLES TURN A HEALTHY PROFIT

David Ellis

WHEN they made the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin in picturesque little Sami on the Greek island of Cephalonia in 2001, it proved a windfall of unimaginable proportions for the village's waterfront restaurateurs

They earned more during the filming than they'd done in years, but not from gawking sightseers hoping to catch a glimpse of Penelope Cruz and Nicolas Gage strutting their stuff for the cameras.

Rather they made it by turning customers away, leaving virtually every one of their waterfront tables empty.

When producers decided on Sami they needed not a row of waterfront restaurants overflowing with tourists for their background, but near-empty eateries reflecting the austere 1940s of wartime Greece.

So they pulled out their cheque books and paid the owners of the restaurants to shut down during their busiest period of the year, giving them three times the profits they'd normally make during their annual tourist season.

And as well, they offered them work as extras in crowd scenes, and scores of other locals were contracted to build a replica military garrison, and again to act as extras.  Cephalonia's northern region had never had it so good.

Today little Sami remains a prime mid-year tourist area, although it and other towns and villages on the island are still hurting from the global economic crisis, with business down as much as thirty per cent.

Cephalonia is a must-see on a Mediterranean holiday: we visited in early October as part of a 12-night sailing aboard the boutique mega-motor-cruiser SeaDream I from Athens to Spain, and even though end-of-season the island was still spectacularly beautiful.

The largest of the Ionian Islands, it is a mountainous dot amid the confetti of islands that sprinkle this part of the Mediterranean. But you don't want to have a fear of heights to tour here: the roads appear zippered onto hills that rise to 1300-metres or more, with tour coaches and local cars and trucks constantly needing to back-and-fill on hairpin 320-degree turns that are not for the white-knuckled.

These roads were originally devised by the British during their "protection era" from 1809 to 1864 and lead to remote communities and ancient forts built to repel Turkish and other pirates; sure-footed mountain goats tended by leathered goatherds somehow graze the rocky 50-degree slopes, olive trees sprout in all directions, and the sharp-eyed can spot hares, hedgehogs and foxes, eagles, vultures and hawks.

And gems of little villages pop up on mountainsides and along coastal fringes, colourful little communities of neat pastel-painted homes, cafés and tavernas, and studios and apartments for holidaymakers during "the season."

And all abound with rainbow coloured Bougainvilleas, oleanders, hibiscus, geraniums, roses, giant impatiens and palms and pines. One of the prettiest is waterside Assos whose outdoor eateries and tavernas offer such local delicacies as squid, barbecued sardines and kid goat cutlets, local olives, honey, nuts, grapes and tropical fruits, and in some a unique Cephalonian fish pie.

Like everywhere else on the island except the main town of Fiskardho and its scattering of surrounding villages in the north, Assos is a relatively "new" village.  Cephalonia sits directly over a geological fault-line and is regularly subjected to earth tremors and shakes: in 1953 four massive quakes in one day struck at over 7 on the Richter Scale.

Ninety per cent of homes and other buildings in Cephalonia's centre and south were demolished or so badly damaged that over 100,000 of the island's 125,000 residents fled, most never returning.

Five hundred people died during that day of horror earthquakes, 3000 were injured, and the island rose 60cm and never settled back again... watermarks along rocky shorelines record this massive upheaval.

Those who stayed or did return built new homes and businesses, often as in the case of Assos, cheek-by-jowl with their shattered neighbours that are to this day still abandoned, yet complete with furnishings and household items left by owners who simply fled.

After a burst of tourist activity from May to September, most of Cephalonia retreats into a kind of hibernation, with places like Assos dwindling to around 100 residents outside "the season."

For more information about visiting see travel agents, and for itineraries of when SeaDream Yacht Club's SeaDream I and SeaDream II will visit Cephalonia in 2011 see www.seadream.com 

 
 

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

 

[] PICTURESQUE settings like this lured Hollywood to Cephalonia to make Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

[] MILLIONAIRE's yachts share the cluttered waterfront at Fiskardo with sardine fishers just metres from sunny waterfront eateries.

[] A SPECTACULAR beach on Cephalonia… but getting there is not for the white-knuckled.

[] ABANDONED buildings like this still remain in pretty little Assos after residents fled after the deadly 1953 earthquakes. You'd need to be more than a handyman to get this one liveable again.

Photos: david ellis

SPREADING THE WORD, ROOM BY ROOM

David Ellis

HAD it not been for the Central Hotel in Boscobel in Wisconsin being over-booked one night in the American Autumn of 1898, the world would never have enjoyed the legacy of John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill.

Nor probably have even heard of them.

But it was Messrs Nicholson and Hill who were the founding fathers of a movement that became known as the Gideons, an extraordinarily forward-thinking yet publicity-shy group of Christians who in 112 years have freely placed over 1.6-billion Bibles and New Testaments in places as diverse as 5-star hotels and condemned men's prison cells world-wide.

But the Gideons have not been without their set-backs… when the one-billionth Bible was accepted at the White House by President George W. Bush, elaborate celebrations were marred within hours by events of the following day – September 11 2001.

John Nicholson and Samuel Hill were commercial travellers who found themselves forced to share a room in Boscobel's Central Hotel because it was over-booked on that night in 1898.

The two quickly discovered they shared strong Christian beliefs and values, and decided to maintain contact.  Gradually they brought together a fraternity of other Christians in their profession – men who spent long and lonely hours away from their families, moving from hotel room to hotel room as they flogged their wares along the highways and by-ways of America.

By July 1899 they'd formed a small group that called themselves the Gideons, and at a meeting in 1904 decided that to provide comfort for travellers in spiritual need, and to spread the word of the Bible, each man would contribute towards the cost of a Bible being placed at the Reception Desk of hotels in which they stayed.

Four years later at a convention in Louisville, Kentucky, the Gideons voted to go further than a Bible at every Reception Desk: they'd place one in every room of every hotel in America. The first went into twenty-five rooms in a hotel in the boisterous little mining town of Superior in Montana, and were paid for by one devout Gideon supporter, Archie Bailey.

Since then 1,630,523 Bibles and New Testaments have been placed free of cost in hotels and lodging houses, at Antarctic bases and in desert military camps, aboard cruise ships, in prisons, hospitals and in nursing homes in 192 countries world-wide…

The latest countries to be included in their distribution were Kiribati in September of this year, and Madagascar in October.

Initially members of the Gideons met the costs of the Bibles and their distribution, but later Christian churches began contributing to the cause.

And in some 40-plus years that's taken us within and without Australia more times than we care to remember, we've found only three hotels in Christian countries that did not have a Gideon's Bible in their rooms.

At Cunnamulla in Queensland, a local hotelier said that while there may not be a Bible in every bedside cabinet, they did have one for every room.

"But they're kept in the office," she told us. "Some cattle station blokes who'd  stay here on Saturday nights were tearing the pages out of our Bibles because they reckoned they made great roll-your-own smokes," she said. "There's now a note in rooms saying they can borrow a Bible from the office if they want."

Our second encounter was on Vancouver Island in Canada, where our hotel GM said he'd told the Gideons they could put a Bible in every room – if they also gave the hotel a holy book for all other major religions.

"They didn't of course. But we relented," he said. "And while not in each room, we now we have Gideon Bibles available at Reception."

And the third was in New York where guests at a hotel are offered a complimentary pet goldfish during their stay, but not a Gideon's Bible. Their explanation was that "society evolves."

The Gideons neither seek publicity nor publicly solicit funds. In Australia they distribute over 350,000 new Bibles and Testaments a year – part of a staggering 1.5-million printed in 90 languages around the world every week.

And all originating from that night 112 years ago when commercial travellers, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill were forced to share a room in an over-booked hotel.


PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] THE first 25 of the world's 1.6-billion Gideon Bibles to go into hotel rooms were placed here in the Superior Hotel in Montana in 1908.

[]  A typical Gideon's Bible found today in 192-countries world-wide.

[]  THE Cunnamulla Hotel in Queensland: Gideon Bibles are kept in the office after some guests discovered the rice-paper pages were idea for roll-your-own cigarettes.

 

When I retire, I’m going cruising

Some weeks ago we unearthed a trend among cruise lines for offering sanctuary to retired politicians willing to spill the beans on their many years in office. We uncovered the likes of Bob and Blanche Hawke, who cruised with Orion, Robert “Piggy” Muldoon, who cruised with Royal Viking and the late Don Chipp (an ardent cruise fan) who sailed aboard The World. The recently retired, Nobel Laureate and near-octogenarian, Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced he would join a cruise with Semester at Sea aboard their lavish 180m vessel, MV Explorer. “The Arch” (as he is fondly known at home) gained a taste for cruising as part of Cunard’s Insight program earlier this year.

John Cleese aboard QM2

Despite their unarguable cachet, politicians are not the only drawcard aboard cruise ships big and small. Many well-credentialed academics join the expedition fleet to add enrichment to Arctic, Antarctic and other remote voyages, but so too do all manner of other sundry celebrities. John Cleese is a semi-regular with Cunard, having travelled aboard QM2 as recently as August. On one of my few big ship voyages, I sat enthralled as a former Concorde captain, complete in sparkling uniform and pretty young attendant, captivated us with the nuances of flying the world’s only (and probably last ) supersonic airliner.

Such is the demand for high profile speakers that a specialist agency, Cruise Ship Speakers, was formed a few years back to cater to the cruising industry. Their menu of dubbed, capped and cloaked orators reads like a New Year’s Honours list. From celebrated military men like General Sir Hugh Michael Rose KCB, CBE, DSO, QGM, acclaimed political reporter, Brian Hanrahan to the more mundane royal astronomer, Sir Arnold Wolfendale, the thirst for stimulating speakers can only increase as the number of regular cruisers continues upwards.

History, antiques, gardening, wine appreciation, science and entertainment are all subjects in demand from passengers not only wanting to learn but also hob-nob with their favourite celebrity. Silver Seas, for one, presents a laudable depth of speakers aboard their world cruises. This year Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, Dan Rather, topped their bill which included world-famous Egyptologist, Zahi Hawass, and our own Professor Geoffrey Blainey.

While English cruisers prefer the more urbane subjects of history and antiques, Americans can predictably be attracted to the likes of Don "Ducky" Williams, a famous Disney cartoon artist, Robert Tieman, a Disney historian and archivist while renowned film critic, Leonard Maltin, will sail aboard Princess Cruises’ ‘Coral Princess’ on their December 15 departure. Australians, curiously, seem less inclined to value guest speakers on local departures. P&O do occasionally feature cruise historian Rob Henderson, while our local celebs (eg Dr Harry, Kylie Gillies) tend to travel as passengers, not as speakers.

What do you think about celebrity speakers aboard cruise liners? Who would you like to see speaking aboard local vessels?

Britain: Harry Potter Film Locations

By Linda Cabasin
Fodor's Editor
Fans of Harry Potter can celebrate the November 19 opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, the first screen installment of J. K. Rowling's final Potter novel. Would-be witches and wizards have been heading to film sites around Britain that capture the magical Potter world since 2001, when the first of the six previous movies opened. Each film pieces together many locations, but you can visit some that truly capture the fantastical richness of Harry's world. Here are top spots to explore if you're happily seeking Harry in Britain.

PANDAW – THE PHOENIX OF ASIA

SHIPS of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company burn
on the Mekong in 1942 to prevent
them falling into enemy Japanese hands.

PART of the busy fabric of life on the Mekong.

David Ellis with David Ovens

HAD it not been for Sir Arthur Phayre the beauties and mysteries of some of Asia's greatest waterways may well have remained the secret of those hardy souls who live along their banks.

A PICTURESQUE Mekong riverside village restaurant.

As Governor of British Burma in 1864 Phayre founded the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, a Scottish-owned fleet of paddle steamers and barges that over a near-80 years grew to some 650 vessels – the largest privately-owned shipping fleet in the world.

The company thrived until 1942 when its owners ordered that the entire fleet be burned to the waterline to prevent Japan, as it marched south as part of its Asia-Pacific campaign, from using the ships to move its troops and weapons.

But the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company has morphed into a new format, Pandaw River Cruises that today operates contemporary versions of the old river boats on the great Mekong and Ton Le rivers in Indochina, the Irrawaddy in Burma and from Sarawak to Indonesian Kalimantan along the Rajang river in Borneo.

Pandaw's 300-odd kilometre journey up the Mekong from Saigon to Phnom Penh or further to Siem Reap provides a unique introduction to a way of life pursued by the millions who live along the banks of the mighty Mekong.

From its source 5000 metres up on the Tibetan Plateau the Mekong flows generally south-east 4200 kilometres through China, forming borders between  Burma and Laos and then Laos and Thailand, flowing through Vietnam into a rich delta, and finally emptying into the South China Sea.

It begins humbly as a few trickling streams and develops into a prodigious waterway that's a staff of life for tens of millions of people.

Along its banks thousands of villages thrive on the four billion cubic metres of water and 250-million cubic metres of silt which make their way down to the 20-million people who rely on these riches around the Mekong Delta.

To  slowly traverse this mighty waterway on a 21st century-fitted  traditional-style vessel is to merge into the very way of life of the people who grow rice, fruit and vegetables, raise ducks, bake hand-made bricks and pursue a host of cottage industries. It is a step into a rural world which depends for survival on each other…and the river.

Pandaw's four- and seven-day journeys up the river make stops every day with expert guides taking guests ashore to places like the floating market at Cai Be, and to visit villagers in their homes making pop-rice (Viet popcorn), rice paper and a tasty candy of coconut, toffee and ginger.

A traditional sampan journey along the small canals leading to the Sadec marketplace unveils some local delicacies which are seriously alien to western palates, but there is ready business from the locals for such delights as skinned rat, and candied, baked and fried insects, beetles and even cockroaches.
 
Thankfully, none of these make the dining salon aboard Mekong Pandaw whose chefs whip-up other more-recognised Asian dishes, with western options available for the less adventurous.

Typical of onboard offerings are the Mekong Fishermen's dinner, the Vietnamese Farmers' dinner and the Khmer regional dinner.

For the Mekong Fishermen's Dinner, local fishermen and their wives provide family recipes and the freshest of seafood for such creations as fried watercress with shrimp and sweet chilli sauce, mixed vegetable and native spices kako soup, and pickled fish with minced pork.

Vietnamese fare includes Szechuan soup with black mushroom and tofu whilst Khmer favorites include hot and sour duck soup and stir-fried seafood in Khmer curry paste.

There's an eclectic wine list on board including vintages from France, Italy, Chile, South Africa and Australia but most passengers lean towards the complimentary local spirits and mixes before dinner and free local beers  which tend to blend better with the spicy cuisine than more delicate wines.

TRAVEL DETAILS: Specialist Asian holiday operator Wendy Wu Tours offers the seven-night Pandaw Mekong cruise from Saigon to Siem Reap from $2300pp, depending on season and cabin choice.  This includes twin-share accommodation, all meals and local drinks on board, transfer to departure point, all excursions and entrance fees, port fees and an English-speaking guide.

There are upstream departures from Saigon and downstream from Siem Reap between September and March.

More details from Wendy Wu Tours phone 1300-727-998 or visit www.wendywutours.com.au

 

STRUTH - New meaning for holiday 'escape'

STRUTH !   

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says fellow travel writer and publisher of OzBabyBoomers, John Rozentals snapped this somewhat confronting welcome to Hawaii's Big Island Hawaii on a visit there earlier this month.

John was taking part in a "Kohala Waterfalls Adventure" run by Hawaii Forest & Trails, and to his delight, and the relief of others along for the spectacular walk, guide Derek Stuart assured them "we haven't lost anyone yet… to bulls, cattle, wild dogs or hunters."

You'll be able to read John's account of the six-hour walk through the rugged country, that was once the domain of the Big Island's famous Paniolo cowboys, on www.ozbabyboomers.com.au soon.

And if you're heading to the Big Island and think a good walk would do you good, check-out www.hawaii-forest.com to enquire about joining one of their tours. Just be prepared in case it involves a sudden bit of running.

 

RIGA: WORLD’S FINEST ART NOUVEAU ARCHITECTURE

David Ellis

PUBLISHER of interesting e-zine Oz Baby Boomers*, John Rozentals visited his ancestral homeland in search of memories of a namesake – and discovered the world's finest collection of Art Nouveau architecture. He sent us this fascinating report from Latvia to share with readers.

For most visitors to Latvia, the search for 12 Alberta Iela, on the northern fringe of Riga's CBD, and the struggle up some eight flights of steep, narrow stairs to the Janis Rozentals & Rudolfs Blaumanis Museum, would be low on their list of priorities.

Admittedly, Blaumanis was a celebrated writer and Rozentals was probably Latvia's greatest artist, but the former's fame was largely restricted to his native land, whilst you can see much more significant examples of the latter's work in the Latvian National Museum of Art, in Riga's Esplanade Square.

For me, though, the lure of these few small rooms was compellingly magnetic. As well as sharing ethnicity, Janis Rozentals and I share our names, or at least we did until my parents, probably rightly, decided Australian school life in the 1950s would be easier for a boy named John than for a boy named Janis.

It's extremely unlikely we're related, but I felt strangely comfortable browsing through the apartment where my namesake had lived a century ago, and sitting on a couch he would have spent many hours resting on.

There's a much stronger connection, though, between Janis Rozentals and this part of Riga than just an apartment.

Rozentals was a leader of the Art Nouveau movement, which flourished in Europe around the turn of the 20th century, influencing design in general and architecture in particular.

Nowhere was that architectural influence felt more deeply than in Riga. The precinct centring on Alberta Iela ("iela" is Latvian for "street") and including Elizabetes Iela and Streinieku Iela, is widely recognised as having the largest and finest collection of Art Nouveau architecture in the world.

Yes, the world — better than in Paris, Berlin, Moscow and St Petersburg that are all widely recognised as Art Nouveau centres.

I laughed with sheer joy as we entered Alberta Iela, overwhelmed by the absolutely over-the-top beauty of the buildings and the totality and consistency of the streetscape.

Despite a century of wars, invasions, social unrest and the economic fundamentalism of the Soviet era, the buildings here have survived intact. And the short-lived economic boom times of the early 21st century provided the city's new-found financial aristocracy with the funds for their meticulous restoration of the grand apartments they once were — or transformation into professional offices, corporate headquarters and national embassies.

Themes of ancient Greece and Egypt, nature, and ravishing female beauty seem to dominate. Sometimes, every floor, even every balcony and window, has an individual motif. It is a spectacular visual delight and the makings of an artist's or architect's dream tour.

Alberta Iela is within easy walking distance of many of Riga's downtown hotels, but one of the best nearby is the Reval, on the corner of Brivibas Boulevarde and Elizabetes Iela.

Its upper levels offer stunning views over the medieval gems of Vecriga ("Old Riga"), the nearby gardens, churches and the broad Daugava River, which wends its way to Riga and the Baltic Sea through the flat Latvian countryside.

Make sure that you get a city-view room, though. The outlook from the rear is far less attractive. The rooms are comfortable and well equipped if not grand, the service can be a bit off-hand, but the location is spot-on and the views sublime.

In nearby Vecriga, try the tiny, boutique Hotel Ainavas. It boasts no views, but is charming, central to the attractions of the medieval city, and the service is wonderfully friendly.

Several years ago, hotels such as these were charging 400–500 Euros per night. Following the collapse of the "Baltic Tigers", it's more like 100–150 Euros today, with breakfast thrown in.

And whilst in Riga take time to stroll the cobble-stoned streets of Vecriga (Old Riga), which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, and shed a tear while visiting the Occupation Museum of Latvia and wonder how people could be so cruel to each other.

Finally ensure you try some of the local delicacies by devoting a morning to Riga's Central Markets.

(*See www.ozbabyboomers.com.au)

 

Photo Captions:

[] LATVIA's Riga has the world's largest collection of Art Nouveau  architecture.

[] UPCLOSE look at the fine detail.

[] RIGA's fine architecture, churches and parks from the city's Hotel Rival.

(All Images: Sandra Burn White)