Myself, age 11

In 1957 our family made its final move, to a nice house in the small town of Burgess Hill, Sussex.  Burgess Hill is on the London-to-Brighton railway line, which was convenient for our father who had a one-hour commute to his job in central London, and for Robert and I, who had a ten-mile train commute to attend the Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School for Boys.

17 Park Road in the ‘60s. When I visited in 2000 the paint and Virginia creeper had been stripped prior to repainting.

 Playing bridge 

My school days were uneventful. I passed the exams. One term at age 16, I came first in my class in both English and maths. My Report Card said I didn’t deserve the maths result. In fact I was not the least interested in maths – but I swotted up the easy formulas used at that level, and simply applied them.  I was not attracted to team sports and did not participate. I founded the school Angling Society instead. More about fishing later… 

 Mum and Dad in the ‘60s

I got my first experiences of overseas travel in this period. About 1956 Dad drove the family through France in our Rover car to Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava, Spain. This was before the days of package air tours. We had some adventures on the way!  I also went on a school trip to Paris, and by invitation from my Dutch girl pen friend in Holland, visited my uncle Howard’s gravestone there.

As a lawyer

After leaving school in 1962 I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, to be trained by the articled clerk system.  A lawyer in Brighton took me on as a probationer for six months. I found the law to be very dull, with all man-made theories and nothing “real.”

I did not like it at all.

University of Leicester

So I snapped up a place at Leicester University when it was offered. (In those days university education in England was generously funded by the state. Tuition was free, and a grant system, based on one’s parents’ income, provided sufficient money for living expenses. Each place had about twenty applicants competing for it, but we all made about four or five applications. You couldn’t just pay money and attend, except in certain cases).

I graduated with a B.A. Special Degree in the Social Sciences (2^nd Class Hons.).  This had involved courses in Geography, Geology, Economic History, Politics, and Social Sciences. As customary in England, it was a three-year course. In my third year I specialised in Geography.

I was Chairman of the Economic History Society, and Secretary of the Conservative Association, in connection with which I went to a couple of conferences and helped at elections. I’m not so sure my politics are quite so right-wing now!  

I was also university representative for AISEC, an international student job exchange programme. Companies in other countries offered jobs for our students in exchange for jobs for their students. This position made me a de facto member of the Student’s Union Council.

An aside - Our Student Entertainment Committee was particularly on the ball. They booked up-and-coming groups before they became famous, and one was the Rolling Stones. The Stones honoured their contract even though they by now had two hit records, and appeared at our Saturday night ‘Hop’ one night in Spring 1964, playing on our makeshift 4 foot stage in the cafeteria. Most of us just stood around the stage in awe - including me. I stood about six feet from Mick Jagger. The Beatles were also booked, but found a way to back out of their contract.

I took advantage of AISEC and went as far as I could in Europe – Istanbul, Turkey. Another student signed up for Turkey, and we travelled by special low-fare students’ train across the whole of Europe. The ‘job’ was a nominal office job for one month, but we were paid. My friend left after his month was up, but I stayed for an extra month, looking around Istanbul and its environs.

Turkey was so exotic that it became my ‘favourite country.’  For our graduation dissertation, Geography specialists had to study some aspect of a place, and write a report. Most students wrote about their own home town (although one went to the US), but I went back to Turkey, again c/o AISEC.

After the one month ‘job’ I travelled throughout Turkey with Hassan Tumer, the son of the family we had lodged with the year before. We went by ship along the Black Sea coast, on to the eastern city of Erzerum, and  zigzagged back by bus and train, seeing the whole country. Hassan had an aunt who lived in Kirkpinar, an agricultural village near Istanbul, so we went to stay there for a couple of weeks. I investigated the village’s life and economy and wrote my dissertation.

I had financed these trips each year by staying in Leicester for a month to work night shift in a bakery. Official hours were 6 p.m. to 2.30 a.m., but to put in maximum hours I hung around helping the foreman until the day shift arrived at 8:00.

Graduation Day, June 1966

A hitchhike around Europe

After university I had a plan – take a year off and travel around the World. The original idea was to emigrate to Canada first, work and travel there for six months, then across the Pacific to Australia and back home through Asia. My best friend, John Smith, decided to come with me.

We were accepted by Canada Immigration but were told the papers wouldn’t arrive for six weeks, so we decided to spend that time travelling in Europe. In fact the papers came through within a week - before we left - but we still did our trip.

We travelled for two months throughout Europe the way many students did back then, the  cheap way - hitchhiking, Youth Hostels, tent, cooking our own food.

We explored many cities, including Antwerp, Brussels, Cologne, Bonn, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, Saltzburg, Vienna, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Belgrade, Skopje, Thessalonika, Athens, Corinth. We spent a week resting on the island of Corfu, and then ferried across to Italy, and up through Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan.  In Milan we split up – John headed across to Bilbao in Spain where his father was working as a consultant engineer biulding a blast furnace, and I headed home. Finances were tight. I had only thirty shillings ($4.50 at the time) to hitchhike 450 miles to the Ostend Ferry! But I was very lucky to be picked up by a German doctor who was heading to Cologne.  He drove me for two days and paid for food and accommodation on the way, so I made it home.

I noticed later in Canada that not many young Canadians were aware of how cheaply Europe could be seen. They thought rented cars and hotels were the way. So I wrote and self-published a booklet Cheapest Europe for Student Travellers.  I didn’t promote it much, but some were sold  by mail order from ads in student papers, and one university bought ten copies. 

To Toronto

John and I sailed to Canada on the S.S. Franconia. It was a stormy voyage. We disembarked in Montreal on 9th November 1966, each with about two hundred pounds in our pockets, and first went to Kingston to look for jobs. We were advised to go to Toronto and were lucky enough to get Christmas sales jobs at Simpsons Department Store.  For New Year’s  we took  a bus to New York to visit a friend of mine from university. His apartment overlooked Central Park.. We met Frederick R. Koch, the art connoisseur, who took us to lunch at the Harvard Club. I kept up a correspondence with Fred for some time, and met him for lunch a couple of times when we were both in London.

It was hard to find good work, but eventually I found a union job as a welder’s helper at $3/hr., and John did commission sales jobs. We each bought a car, and spent the summer exploring Ontario - Niagara Falls, fishing trips - mostly in John’s Volvo.

We hadn’t saved enough to go on to Australia (our plan), but didn’t want to face another cold Ontario winter, so we decided to head for Vancouver.

To Vancouver
We left in October 1967. We didn’t take the direct route across Canada. We took the long way….

Expo 67 was still on, so first we headed east through Ottawa to Montreal and visited Expo. We then turned south through New England to Boston. We by-passed New York because we had already been there, and went on to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C.

When we reached Washington on October 21, we found ourselves amidst 70,000 demonstrators taking part in the first of what was to become huge bi-annual anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. We had no idea it was going to take place, although as we drove towards Washington the atmosphere had seemed very strange and tense. At the Pentagon we saw hippies putting flowers in the guns of the guarding soldiers, and we attended the speech by Dr.Benjamin Spock at the Reflecting Pool. We saw the Washington and Lincoln Memorials, but were disappointed that the Smithsonian Museum was closed and we could only view the White House and the Pentagon from a distance!! 

Finally we turned west towards Vancouver, and visited Charleston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita.  We were particularly keen to see the old cowboy towns from the movies and comics, so Dodge City was a highlight.

From Salt Lake City we turned northwards to Vancouver, taking the Boise, Spokane route.

We took John’s Volvo car on this trip, since the seats folded down to make a sleeping platform. We slept mostly in the car, using motels occasionally to clean up and rest properly. Our plan was to average 400 miles/day. Having visited a city, we would drive as far as we could towards the next one that evening. Waking early, we would usually arrive at the next city with a day to visit all the sights….then on towards the next.

Vancouver

We arrived in Vancouver in November, and rented an apartment in Kitsilano. It had a view of Kits Beach. We immediately took a liking to Vancouver, for its beauty and scenery. But jobs are hard to find in winter in Vancouver, since many young Canadians migrate there for the warm weather, and this was the ‘60s – the hippie era.

We ran out of money by Christmas. We lived on baked beans and toast with no butter. Our Christmas dinner that year was the nuts and fruit on the table of some girls we visited! We didn’t have a dime for a paper or for a phone call, so a couple of times we walked two miles to the public library and its free newspapers, then begged to use the library phone! No jobs though. We were too proud to write home for money and admit we were failures.

In early January, John had the idea of knocking on doors asking for odd jobs. He went to West Vancouver, a wealthy residential suburb. The first day he swept leaves. Finally we had a way to make money! I went along the second day and we were asked to clean windows. The customer gave us some Windex and paper towels, and we assumed this was how pros cleaned windows. So we bought our own Windex and paper towels and knocked on doors telling people we  were window cleaners.  We were soon told that pros use ammonia and special brass squeegees, so we bought these. Our initial investment in business was $3.50.

January was hard going with several snowstorms that interrupted our work. Sometimes our water froze on the outsides of the windows before we could squeegee it off! But we soon built up a window cleaning (and later grass-cutting) round, with repeat customers. We regularly made about $4/hour, which was good money in those days (beer was $1.60/case, cigarettes $2.10/carton, gasoline 23c/gallon, 3 course restaurant meal $1 or less, coffee 10c, rent $90/month, nice house $18,000).

 At first we did not own a ladder, but relied on the customer having one . If they didn’t have a ladder we canvassed the neighbours for one we could borrow. In April, a customer asked if we could paint his house for $4/hour. We had no idea how to paint a house, so we read books about it. We were far too thorough and slow however, so he fired us. But we started telling our window cleaning customers we were also painters, and successfully painted some houses. We put up our rate to $5/hour.

Every weekend we drove out of town and explored ‘Beautiful B.C.’, particularly its rivers and lakes, since we were both very keen on fishing.

 In October a customer offered us jobs as surveyors’ helpers at a proposed new ski resort (Brohm Ridge). We moved to Brackendale (50 miles north of Vancouver). I didn’t like this work, so carried on window cleaning, commuting every day back to West Vancouver. 

I wanted to return to England by Christmas, so we advertised our window cleaning business, and sold it for $1000! 

John stayed on in Brackendale, and I flew home. John returned in April, looking very sun-tanned. 

With John Smith at Vancouver Airport

 Back in England

After an interesting sojourn in Canada, it was time to start a career. I thought I would try the travel business, and immediately got a well-paid (£2500 p.a.) position as Manager of the Costa Brava Administration Section at Clarksons Holidays, in London.. I had a secretary and eight staff. I commuted to London with Dad for a while, then rented an apartment in Bromley.

 Clarksons was a pioneer of package tours to Europe and was growing very rapidly, doubling every year.

 One benefit of the job was that if there was an empty seat on a plane, employees could fly free for an ‘inspection visit’. I took advantage of this and made half a dozen trips to different Mediterranean resorts. 

For my ‘real holiday’ a friend and I went somewhere Clarksons didn’t go - Morocco. We flew to Gibraltar, ferried to Tangier, visited Rabat, Casablanca, and Fez, and explored the High Atlas Mountains by donkey.

But two years of commuting and sitting in an office in Central London was enough for me. I yearned for the scenery and wide open spaces of British Columbia! I quit Clarksons. (And by coincidence Clarksons went bankrupt soon after. They over-extended themselves by investing in their own fleet of planes, which proved uneconomical). 

I went back to Vancouver in spring 1970. John, meanwhile, was living in the Seychelle Islands. His father had some property there and he had gone to inspect it. He liked the Seychelles so he got some kind of office job there and was thinking of settling down. 

Drive – New York to British Columbia

Someone had told me about the “Auto Drive-away” system in the US, where one is given a car to deliver to an address, and the only cost to the driver is fuel and oil. I decided to drive across the US again using this system, and it worked.  

I flew to New York and was given a Volkswagen to drive to Atlanta. In Atlanta I was given an air-conditioned top-of-the-line Ford Mustang to drive to Portland Oregon!  The only condition was that I couldn’t enter Nevada.

 I decided to take the southern route - through New Orleans, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco.

 I didn’t mind driving on my own. I met people along the way including hitch hikers (less risky then), saw many interesting places (such as the Kennedy assassination site), and had some interesting experiences (such as being invited to a catfish BBQ on the Mississippi).

 I dropped the car off in Portland, and caught a bus to Vancouver.

 Back in Vancouver

I had to make an income while looking for a career, so contacted some of our old painting customers to say that I was back, and started painting again.

 I checked out the travel business, but found it undeveloped at that time in Vancouver – just lots of small travel bureaux. A customer/friend was a big wheel in insurance, and offered to get me into that, but it sounded boring so I didn’t follow up.

 When John heard I was back in Vancouver he decided the Seychelles were not perhaps for him, and decided to return to Vancouver too. He arrived a couple of months later and we were business partners again. After a few months he brought his girlfriend Susan over from England. They decided to move to Victoria, a beautiful city on Vancouver Island, in Spring 1971. They were married in Victoria on 29 April 1972, and I was Best Man.

 At some point in this period I thought that Australia might be a better bet, so I actually bought a plane ticket there. I had arranged a week’s stopover in Hawaii and during that time I chickened out, cashed in my ticket, and went back to Vancouver! At least I saw Hawaii.

 Work

So John Smith and I had been partners again for about a year, advertising ourselves as ‘student painters’. We were self-taught and learned all the tricks of the trade from scratch, since neither of us had ever worked for another painter. Business was good, and we were earning more money than any of our friends who had regular jobs.

 After John left for Victoria I took on an assistant and began to build up my own business. Eventually I had about eight employees in summer, and less in winter. It was not a high prestige business to be in, but one way or another it suited me:

       -     I was the absolute boss, inspectors or anyone else to report to.

      -    We worked outside in the summer and inside in the winter.

-         I did not have to wear a suit or go to the same office or shop every day – we moved around to different locations constantly.

-         I was free to arrange my time however I liked (for a while I tried a 4 day week). I was not committed to regular hours. I could take holidays or days off whenever I wished. (I took four to six weeeks off at Christmas time in order to travel). I could switch my company’s long weekends to a different date when the weather was better or the roads would not be so crowded.

-         It was a challenge to organise  jobs in the most efficient way.

-         I enjoyed meeting the customers, and advising them about colours and design.

-         I enjoyed relating to my employees. I paid them generously and reliably, so I got the best and they remained loyal. Many of them stayed with me for years at a stretch..

-         Overhead was low, and there were lots of tax write-offs (office in home, storage, vehicles, etc.)

I did it just for the money, so that I could pursue my many other interests. The money was good, steady, and quite adequate for my needs. My policy was to charge for labour double what it cost me. So minus some expenses, my income in summer was the equivalent of the total of the wages of up to seven skilled tradesmen, and in the less busy winter season, that of two or three, plus the work I did myself at full rates. I had no office or secretary to pay for, and recently calculated that recently my fixed overhead (generously calculated for tax purposes) was only $840/month – less than a day’s work.. 

I didn’t make a quick fortune, or attempt to. Naturally I sometimes thought I should be doing something else and had a few ideas over the years, but nothing I considered seemed so good, or it would have required more commitment than I wanted to give.

 We did not do new construction, with all its mess and dirt (and interfering builders, architects and designers) but concentrated on high quality residential and some commercial work, dealing directly with the clients. We worked entirely on the prosperous North Shore of Vancouver and met lots of interesting people – entertainers, TV and radio personalities, hockey and football players, authors, well-known businessmen, and others not so famous but still interesting in their own right.

 We did a few commercial contracts. We were the painters of choice for the City of North Vancouver, and painted City Hall, the Library, the Police Station, the Fire Hall, the Museum, the Social Centre, the Works Yard, and other buildings they owned.

 An interesting job was the very ornate interior of the Freemason’s Lodge, a four storey building built in the ‘20s and not much changed since then. A few secrets in there – hidden strings that make things move, boxes with skeletons……

 I would like to thank the following employees in particular, for their long service and good work: Derek B., Scott B., Dan C., Clayton C., Paul F., Chad K., Steve L., Chris P., Jim M., Dan P., Norm R., Orville S., Dan S.,  Jeff S., and most especially Clint M., who has taken over the business, with help from his wife Tammie. Tammie has helped me with my medical care, I don’t know what I would do without her 

Company golf tournament, 1999

Company golf tournament, 2000

 Deaths of Parents

My mother died, after battling breast cancer, on 10 August 1970.
Father died, of a brain hemorrhage, on 20 May 1972. 

One summer two friends and I went to Jasper, hoping to climb Mount Robson, at 12,972 ft. the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. Yet again we were foiled by bad weather, but were able to ascend Mt. Edith Cavell (11,032 ft.). We decided to head south to Banff and the Bugaboo Range. The weather was bright and sunny there, and we had a wonderful week exploring this spectacular mountain range.

I did do lots of successful day, weekend, or long weekend ascents of local mountains. In fact I can drive along most of our roads and highways and point out that I’ve climbed most of the mountains in view. I went mountaineering almost every good weather weekend when I wasn’t fishing. When up a mountain looking down at a river I wished I was down there – and when on a river looking up at the mountains I wished I was up there!

Regular companions were John H. and his friend John O., two young hikers whom I introduced to mountaineering. John Howe developed his interests and went on to write about climbing, and is now head of Mountain Search and Rescue for Squamish. He owns a forestry consulting company there. I was touched when, visiting me because of my illness, he brought a framed photo of three of us atop a peak, which he keeps on his desk to this day.

John H., John O. and me on top of Welch Peak.
Photo by Danny W., John keeps it on his desk at work to this day.

                        Rapelling                                                     Peak of Mount Frosty

Skiing
Skiing was naturally my winter sport, and I skied at every opportunity during the ‘70s and ‘80s.  I never had a season ticket at a resort, preferring to go to different ones each time. I skied every resort in B.C., Washington State, and Banff and Jasper, taking many weekend or week-long trips with friends. I preferred to ski off the runs in the powder snow and explore as much as possible.

I also did ski-mountaineering – climbing mountains uphill on special short skis with hinged boot bindings and removable ‘skins.’ This involved some overnight trips, staying in Alpine Club cabins in the mountains.

I did a course in Nordic skiing, but did not really take to it.

One winter John H., John O. and I wanted to be at the top of a mountain for New Year’s Day. We were to drive to a lake and from there climb the mountain - a three day trip in all. But there had been recent heavy snowfalls and the road that passed by the lake was not ploughed. (That road has since been paved and would be ploughed daily now). My 4WD Jeep, even with chains, got bogged down. It took us a whole day to hike to the lake. We found the snow on the trail up the mountain was too deep and soft, so we had to abandon the climb. We camped by the lake for two nights in sub-zero weather and explored the nearby surroundings.

Winter 1981-82:

Fiji, New Zealand, Australia

I finally made it to Australia! – but wanted to see a bit more while I was down under, so my travel agent booked the flights for an eight week tour: a week in Fiji, ten days in New Zealand, and a month in Australia.

 Fiji:
Fiji’s airport is at Nadi on the west side of the main island of Viti Levu, and the capital, Suva, is at the other. A paved road along the south shore connects the two, and contains all the tourist resorts and attractions. After seeing these I decided to rent a car and take the north route back to Nadi, which was a maze of gravel roads where ordinary tourists seldom ventured. I wanted to see the real Fiji and meet the native Fijians, and I did. 

I picked up a hitchhiker and he invited me to visit his village. He said I would have to present myself to the village chief and give him some ‘kava.’ We bought some kava roots, parked my car, and walked about two miles down a trail to his village on the sea shore. I met the chief, he prepared a little kava (a drink with drug-like properties), and welcomed me to his village.

 I stayed overnight in the reed hut of my friend’s family, sleeping in a mosquito net ‘tent’ on the earthen floor. The village depended on fishing. I went out in a fisherman’s boat, watched the women gather shellfish, and was shown all the rest of the village activities. The village had no electricity or telephone service. To leave for any reason meant a two-mile hike up the trail to the road above. I did notice a couple of small motorcycles.

 When I left we had a kava ceremony in the chief’s compound, where I was the honoured guest. Needless to say I was tapped for some money – they wanted $10,000 for a water supply system. I gave them an appropriate gift (not that much) and left on good terms.

 I had to hurry to Suva airport for my flight to New Zealand.

 New Zealand

I landed in Auckland rented a car, and lokked around before driving south to the hot springs of the volcanic area of Roturua. The area was relaxing and pleasant, so I spent a couple of days there.

 On Christmas Day I was at Lake Taupo. It didn’t seem at all like Christmas, with people walking around in shorts in the summer weather. I was amused to see fully dressed Santas in the streets, and shop windows with foam ‘snow’ sprayed on them.

 I was interested to check out the famous fishing spots on New Zealand’s North Island, so I bought some books and drove around looking at the rivers and lakes. The fishing season is in the winter, so I didn’t do any fishing there.

I drove as far as Wellington, and then back up the west coast of the North Island to Auckland. North of Auckland the Bay of Islands looked worth a visit, and indeed it was. I finally did some fishing! I joined up with a group of three and we hired a guided boat to try marlin fishing. Marlin are migratory fish and the season was only just beginning, so we didn’t catch any, although the very next day the first one of the season was brought in.

 New Zealand is a very beautiful country. I had not seen the South Island on this trip, so I hoped to return one day.

 Australia
I  landed in Sydney and drove along the south coast through Canberra and Melbourne to Adelaide. In Canberra I stayed with my cousin Clive, who lived on a hobby farm with his family. 

 I stayed with my uncle Ken and his family for a few days, and then flew to Alice Springs and visited Ayers Rock. It was too hot in Alice, so I was glad to fly north to tropical Darwin. From there I flew to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, and then back to Sydney.

 Memories from Australia include:

-         The flies in Melbourne when walking along the beach promenade. 

-         The heat in Alice. After walking around a bit I kept going into the air-conditioned Woolworths store to cool off. I burnt my leg when it touched the metal body of a Jeep I rented.

-         Leeches in Darwin. I went to sleep beside a river and woke up with my stomach and chest covered with them!

-         “No thongs allowed” in pubs. It just so happened that all the Aborigines wore thongs.

-         My favourite city was Adelaide, followed by Cairns.

  January 1988

To California

 For my winter holiday ’87-8, I did a simple trip. Together with two friends, I drove my Jeep down the west coast of the US through Washington and Oregon to California.

 I had driven directly up the inland highway before, but this time I wanted to take my time and see all the sights. We had three weeks.

 We took the coast road, and were awed by the rugged coast of Washington and Oregon.

In San Francisco I particularly remember the Golden Gate Bridge, Haight-Ashbury, Fisherman’s Wharf, and our visit to Alcatraz Prison.

 Halfway between SF and LA, we spent a day at Hearst Castle.

 We saw lots in L. A., including Sunset Strip, the Walk of Fame, our Hollywood tour, Rodeo Drive, Disneyland, Universal Studios, the Queen Mary at Long Beach, and Santa Monica Beach.

 In San Diego our visit to Sea World was most memorable. From there we drove a few miles south, parked the Jeep at the border, and took a bus across into Tijuana.

 Winter 1989-90
UK

 For winter ’89-‘90 I had planned another visit to New Zealand, and bought my tickets. However, shortly before I was due to go I heard that I had lost my appeal re. buying my dream house on the Seymour River.  I realised that I had lots to do looking for another house and then moving, so I cancelled the New Zealand tickets and went on a simple trip to England instead.

I arrived at my brother Robert’s house on Christmas Eve. Brother Jim happened to be there too.

 After Christmas I headed north by train, and my first stop was York. I had never been that far north in the UK before.

 I continued on to Glasgow and Edinburgh, exploring these cities, and then to my real objective - St. Andrews Golf Course. I walked all around the Old Course and saw all the familiar sights I had seen on TV. I celebrated Hogmany in a pub in St. Andrews.  I visited some other famous old Scottish golf courses.

 Winter 1990-91

New Zealand

 The following winter I was able to go to New Zealand again, for a month. This time I wanted to see the South Island.

 I landed in Auckland and drove to Wellington, taking a different route from before, so I could see different cities. From the ferry at Picton I set off south on a clockwise tour of the Island.

 Accommodation is sometimes hard to find in New Zealand’s summer, so I took a tent and camping equipment, and mostly stayed in campgrounds. This was a good way to meet people.

 A major omission was the Invercargill and Milford Sound areas, but I was very impressed with the glacial scenery of the Westland Coast.

 Back in Auckland I had a few days to spare, so headed up to the Bay Of Islands, where I had been marlin fishing ten years before. I was a golfer now, so this time I rented clubs and played golf at the spectacular seaside Waitangi Golf Course. It was so scenic that I played twice.

 Winter 1992-93 
South-East Asia

 I toured S.E. Asia in the winter of ‘93/4.  I had never been to Asia before. I kept a diary on this trip, but have no still photos since I only took my video camera.

 I arrived in Singapore via Tokyo on 21 December. Although I had an idea of the major places I wanted to visit and explore, I had no definite itinerary planned. One date was certain – I had to be back in Singapore by 12 January for my flight back home. I would play it by ear and make travel arrangements as I went along. 

 I spent three days in Singapore, where I particularly liked the cable car ride to Sentosa Island with its aquarium, and the River Tour.

 Next, a train north through Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur, where I spent Christmas Day at the Zoo.

 Another train took me to Penang Island, where I hired a motorcycle to tour around. I was impressed by Fort Cornwallis, the old British colonial buildings, and the Butterfly Farm.

 I wanted to see a little of Indonesia, so I then took a ferry to Medan, in northern Sumatra. I went to a travel agent and joined a tour group – all Asian apart from me. We toured the temples and sights and ended up at a beachfront hotel at Lake Toba. There was a Dutch tour group staying there and I met the group’s tour guide, who invited me to go with his group on their outings. He wanted to practice his English, and spent more time talking to me than attending to his group!

 After a New Year’s party with the Dutch group, I flew to Bangkok, Thailand, on Jan.1. I spent two days in Bangkok and then flew to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, which is one of the corners of the notorious “Golden Triangle,” where Laos, Burma and Thailand meet, and which used to be the centre of the opium trade. This trade has died away now.

100 miles north, in Chiang Rai, I was looking from a bridge one morning at a bloated dead dog floating in the river. A European nearby commented that he thought it was a pig, but I pointed out its teeth and he agreed it was a dog. It turned out that he was actually a veterinarian, from Hungary. We both had the same idea of renting a 4WD vehicle to tour the forested hills around Chiang Rai, so we joined up and did so. The most interesting part of this day was when we came across a village of the primitive hill tribespeople that live in the area. The villagers were very friendly and showed us their village and the way they live. 

I flew back to Bangkok, and from there to Singapore. I had three days to spare, so thought I’d try some golf. Golf in Singapore is prohibitively expensive, so this meant catching the ferry across to Desoru in Malaysia, renting a car, and driving to the Desoru Golf Club. I rented clubs and joined a threesome of Malaysians. We each had a caddy – the first time I had golfed with a caddy. The tropical grass was very lush and there were monkeys everywhere, trying to get into the tightly fastened litter bins.

 I caught an early morning flight back home on January 17^th.

 January 1993
California

 I bought my Jaguar XJSC car  in December, and wanted to try out its paces, so thought a drive to Southern California would fit the bill. I went with Pete Svensson, my golfing partner, and we took our clubs.

 We left on January 4^th in a severe snowstorm. It was tricky just getting out of my driveway, and we wondered whether to leave that day or wait until the snow eased off. I only had all-season tires. We gave it a try, however, and after following snowploughs down the roads and highways we made it across the border. Relief came when the snow finally eased off by time we reached Oregon.

 We drove down the central highway all the way to San Diego, and took our time driving back up the scenic coast. This was the peak of my golf-book collecting obsession so we visited every used bookstores I could find on the way.

 Highlights of this trip included:

Pebble Beach Golf Course:
We had a good look around the Pebble Beach clubhouse area, and watched some people tee off. The US$250 green fee deterred us, so we went just down the road to a cheaper course that was by the sea and had the same playing characteristics as the famous Pebble Beach.

 We took our clubs with us, and played several other courses in California.

Whale watching
From Monterey we took a whale-watching trip. We saw humpback whales and other marine mammals.

 L.A. Riots:

In March 1991 young black motorist Rodney King had been filmed being beaten by white police officers. Racial tensions built up in South Central L.A., and in the summer of 1992 there was rioting, looting, arson, and killings, particularly in Watts and Compton. The National Guard was called in. 

 We had watched all this unfold on TV for weeks, and wanted to see where it had taken place. We’d have been asking for trouble if we’d driven through the area on our own, so we parked our car at the airport and found a friendly black taxi driver who gave us a tour of Compton. Through wound-up tinted windows we saw all the familiar spots, including the intersection where a truck driver had been filmed from the air as he was shot.

 I was shocked to see the conditions in which residents of Compton live. It was like a Third World country - very run-down, tiny houses with bars on the windows, garbage and potholes all over the roads, and people repairing cars or doing business in their unkempt front yards. The aftermath of the riots, looting and arson, just made it made it worse than it already was.

 Golf: Tournament of Champions
A much nicer place was the La Costa Golf Resort and Spa at Carlsback.

They were holding the Tournament of Champions, where all the winners of tournaments form the previous year compete. We watched the two final days of competition, and saw many famous golfers. This tournament moved to Hawaii two years later.

 Tijuana

We walked through the border but were soon hassled by beggars on the other side. We were picked up by a cab driver, who gave us a tour and dropped us at a very nice place for lunch.

 Winter 1993-94
Australia

 I decided to visit Australia again. There were just two major cities I had not seen – Perth and Brisbane.

 Perth, on the west coast of Australia, is one the most isolated cities in the World. Nobody passes through Perth in transit to anywhere else, and it is far distant from any other city.

I spent about a week in Perth, and found its surroundings to be very pleasant, with fertile farms and vineries.

The main focus of this holiday was to take a trip on the famous Indian Pacific train across the Nullabor Plain. The journey from Perth to Sydney is 4352 km, and takes two and a half days. It includes the longest straight stretch of railway in the World – straight across the barren Outback for 478 km. The trip was a wonderful experience.

 I disembarked the train at Adelaide, rented a car and drove via Melbourne to Sydney. I planned to spend the next ten days visiting the resorts and playing golf on the “Gold Coast” of Queensland, ending up at Brisbane, from where I was to fly home.

 I found the holiday resorts to be shallow, superficial, and full of brash young tourists who were there for the beaches, surfing and partying. Worse still, it was uncomfortably hot, and I found that the custom was to play golf at first light before the heat became too overwhelming. This did not suit me.

 My flight to Australia had involved a transit stop at Auckland, so I had the idea of calling my airline to see if I could change my flight timing to take the New Zealand section early. The agent said I could, but I had to be at Brisbane airport within three hours. I was 140 miles away. I just made it time, but I never did see Brisbane!

 In New Zealand I toured the Coromandel Peninsula, a region I had not visited before, and found the weather and surroundings to be very pleasant. I was glad I had been able to change plans.    

Winter 1996-97

Hawaii

I wanted an uncomplicated holiday, so decided to go with a friend and employee, Jeff Scrutton, to Hawaii, for three weeks. We did not go on a package tour, but simply booked a flight to Honolulu and made our way independently from there.

 We toured Oahu, Maui and the Big Island, making our own flight arrangements and renting cars at the airports. We kept clear of the tourist resorts and stayed in ordinary hotels and motels, just as the locals would. Sometimes it was hard to find a room, and some of the rooms were not the best (lizards, cockroaches) - but we got more of a feel for the ‘real Hawaii’ than the average tourist, and we met plenty of local people.

 We took our golf clubs and played golf about five times. We first enquired at a tourist resort, but found that their golf fees were US$150 per round, plus mandatory cart. We discovered that there were also a number of municipal courses with much more reasonable fees ($20-40), so we played those. Curiously, as tourists we had to pay more than locals to play these courses, but they were still a bargain. Hawaiian native people are very keen on golf, and good players. We were pleased to meet and play with a number of them.

 Winter 1997-98
North India Tour

 India was next on the list of countries that I wanted to visit. I realised it was not the sort of place where one lands at the airport and drives around by oneself, so for once I took a package tour so that I could be gently acclimatised. It was an ‘adventure tour’ of Northern India booked out of London, and our group was comprised of about fifteen young Europeans and Australians. I was the only Canadian.

 We toured the famous  ‘Golden Triangle’ - Delhi, the Taj Mahal, Jaipur, and various other palaces and forts. The ‘adventure’ part of the tour included camel riding, elephant riding, bicycle riding, and visits to tiger and bird sanctuaries. Accommodation was four or five star - particularly at Samode - a Maharajah’s Palace converted into a hotel.

 We took an overnight train to Varanasi, a pilgrimage city on the Ganges where Hindus come to die. They are cremated on the banks and then floated down the river with candles on their raft. Nearby is a tree where Buddha used to preach - Buddhism started in India.

 The tour was a luxury one, European style. We saw India from the windows of a bus. Everything went smoothly - we were ushered into the tourist attractions, fine restaurants and hotels. The beggars and salespeople were fended off for us, and the only local people we met were guides and entertainers. I felt we were not experiencing the ‘real’ India - a TV show would have been almost as good.

 But I had a trick up my sleeve. When booking my air tickets I had allowed for an extra few days on my own before flying home. I had no definite plan in mind, so I asked our guide where she would suggest I went. She had been a guide in South India before, so she suggested Madras (Chennai).

 Chennai
I landed in Chennai, found a hotel, and arranged for a car and driver to take me on a four-day tour of the area. According to my guidebook, Mamallapuram (an ancient temple town) and Pondicherry (an old French colony), were the places to visit.

 The morning went badly. The driver was very deferential and I sat in the back of the car. When we stopped at an attraction he waited in the car as I walked around on my own. For lunch he took me to a luxury resort but nobody was there, and I had lunch on the patio on my own.

 I was determined to meet a local person, and that’s what I did in Mamallapuram. A young man approached me, selling postcards. I chatted to him, made friends, and we went to his house where I met his parents and friends. His name was Mohan and his best friend was Mani. I invited them to come on the overnight trip to Pondicherry with me, and they accepted. The driver was apprehensive at first, but agreed to take them.

 We had a great time. Even the driver opened up. His name was Andrew Baskar. He became my regular driver, and I am still in touch with him.

 Mohan and Mani saw me off at Chennai Airport. I promised to send them the photos I had taken, and we kept in touch by mail all year.

 Winter 1998-9
South India Tour

I had been so intrigued by my first visit to India that I wanted to see more. To me, India is the ultimate travel destination - once you see India all other countries seem tame by comparison.

I arranged to team up again with Mani and Mohan, and tour South and West India. I had some brochures from package tour companies and intended to follow their itineraries, but independently.

 Andrew, our driver from the year before, took us first through the temple towns of Tamil Nadu. He left us in Madurai, and we took a taxi to the coast. We enjoyed the well-known boat cruise from to Kollam to Alleppey, and then headed inland to the old British hill stations of Coimbatore, Connor and Ootacamund. (The Officer’s Club at ‘Ooty’ is where the game of snooker was invented. It was used a warm up game for the serious game of billiards). We took a taxi to Mysore with its fabulous palace, a train to modern Bangalore, and a sleeper bus to the coast at Goa. We took another sleeper bus to Bombay, and after three days there Mani and Mohan flew back to Chennai, and I flew home. (It was the first time anyone in Mani or Mohan’s families had flown, so they were very excited).

 I found it very enjoyable travelling with Mani and Mohan. They were strict Hindus, and taught me much about their religion and its festivals. They described exotic foods on menus, and kept beggars and hustlers away. They negotiated taxi fares and other purchases while I kept in the background. They were very easy going and none of us ever had an argument. They were having the time of their lives, seeing and experiencing things they never would have otherwise, and so, for that matter was I.

 January 2000
India from Chennai north to Darjeeling

 I had become fascinated with India. There was still lots more to see, so I decided to return.

 This time we headed north from Chennai, made a detour to “Film City” at Hyderabad, and then by overnight train to the historic city of Bhubaneswar.  We took a taxi tour of the city, and then the taxi driver persuaded us to take a four day excursion inland to visit the tribal regions in the hills.

 We spent a night in Jeypore, at a hotel next to the Maharaja’s Palace. Our hotel had a nice garden bar, and the Maharajah himself was in the habit of drinking there most nights. I stood out as a distinguished stranger, so he invited me over for a chat.

 From here we entered the Bonda tribal region. Some areas of India are off-limits even to other Indian citizens. We arrived at a closed border but our guide bribed our way in. Arriving at a small market town our guide asked me for $30 to bribe the Chief of Police. The Chief assigned us a constable, who for $3 followed us around and told me what I could photograph. I’m not sure that I would have agreed to all this had it all been explained to me beforehand, but I got some unique photos of market day in a primitive area. After some haggling I bought a genuine bow and arrow from the hands of a tribesman who actually used it for hunting.  

 An overnight train took us to Calcutta, where we saw the impressive relics of the British Raj - particularly St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Victoria Memorial. They were still playing cricket on the large open space of the Maidan.

 Another overnight train (1^st Class sleepers are very comfortable) north to ‘New JPG’ and then a car ride, and we arrived in Darjeeling, another British hill station, in the foothills of the Himalayas. From a hillside we caught a glimpse through the clouds of the mountain K2, and apparently Mount Everest could sometimes be seen. Sherpa Tenzing set up his Himalayan Mountain Institute here, where he trained Sherpas to guide and climb. There was a statue of Tenzing, and an interesting museum of mountaineering.

 Winter 2000-01

England, Sri Lanka

 During the Autumn of 2000 the World was gripped with millennium fever. At midnight on December 31 computers would crash, aircraft would be grounded, all the lights would go out, and the World would descend into chaos.

 Nobody knew for sure what would really happen, including me, so I decided to play it safe and be in England for this great event, rather than in a more remote part of the World.

 I went to my Aunt Doreen’s house in Chester for Christmas and the New Year. We went  to watch the city’s fireworks on New Year’s Eve. We anxiously counted down the seconds to midnight, and........nothing happened. The scare had been overblown, although apparently  many computers had had to be corrected to allow for the date change.

 From Chester I drove to Watford to see our old house and my old schools. I then drove to Burgess Hill and our house there. I knocked on the door and the present owners showed me around. The greenhouse at the back of the kitchen has been replaced by a family room, The summerhouse has gone, there is a new garage, and the fence and gate are gone. The Virginia creeper that covered the house had been stripped and the house was about to be painted (for the first time - up until then the original 1880s stucco or cement blocks had not been touched). My father had bought the house in 1957 for £3,700 and sold it in 1970 for £8,500, so I was surprised when the new owners said it was now worth £400,000.

 I then drove to Brighton and walked through the grounds of my old school, which is now a 6^th Form college. I also visited the Brighton Aquarium, which is one of the oldest in the World.

 I still had time to drive back to Chester through Calne, where I found that Grandfather’s shopfront was now two businesses, one of which was an Indian restaurant.

 British motorways have improved vastly since the family used to drive from Watford to Calne in the ‘50s. Back then we used to leave at 5 in the morning to miss rush hour traffic in our busy area. We drove all day along ‘A’ roads through the centres of towns and villages, often having to look at a map. Now it is a matter of just over one hour along the motorway.

 From Chester I also toured the Welsh Castles, and went to Liverpool, where I particularly remember the Beatles Museum.

 India

Sri Lanka

Once millennium fever had gone away, I went to India again. I met my Indian friends Mani and Mohan in Chennai and we flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka. We hired a car and a professional guide through a local travel agency and he took us on a pleasant and relaxing tour of this tropical island. It was nice not to have to make our own arrangements for hotels and transportation at each stage of the journey.

 When our guided tour was over we had a few days to spare before our flight back to Chennai, so our driver dropped us off at a beach hotel - literally on the sands of the beach. If we had been there exactly two years later we would have been caught in the Tsunami of January 2003. The railway tracks that we rode to Colombo were overwhelmed, and featured in the news. 

Winter 2001-02

Kenya Safari

 I had always wanted to see the animals I had seen on so many safari shows on TV, and finally took up the opportunity.  I flew to Nairobi and met the six people who would be joining me on this organised adventure - a Swedish schoolteacher and his wife and two adult children, and a Dutch salesman and his teenage daughter.  We were to travel around the game reserves of Kenya in a minivan, camping in tents at pre-arranged campsites.

 Most people stay in the many luxurious lodges, but I had booked too late to find room in one of these, and as a traveller rather than a tourist, I actually thought it was nicer to sleep on the actual ground of Africa and have nature all around me, rather than in a bed at a  lodge. (Other than our first night that is - when we arrived we found that an elephant had wandered through the broken fence around our campsite and was quite near our tents. This worried our guide until the elephant went away).

 I have written a comprehensive account of this trip, with lots of photos, for my website Aquarticles, at:  http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/travel/Norfolk_Safari%201.html

 Our first stop was at Amboseli National Park, which is particularly known for its elephants, although there are many other animals there. One morning we visited a Masaai village that was on the outskirts of the Reserve. I didn’t go on with the group back to camp and another drive, but stayed in the village and met some Masaai people - young “Masaai warriors.” I spent the afternoon and early evening with them, chatting and taking photos. I sent copies of my photos to them and we had some correspondence after.

 We then went north to Samburu National Reserve, where we saw many more animals - lions, cheetahs, leopards, giraffes, crocodiles.....

 We had to cross the Equator, and there was a sign marking exactly where it was. At the exact line of the Equator, "Dr. Williams" made a clever living by showing tourists how water drains clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the Southern. I was surprised when he showed us that we only had to walk about thirty yards (or metres) for this effect to take place. The good doctor sold us each a signed "Certificate" that we had "Crossed the Equator, at Nanyuki, Kenya."

 Continuing north, we stopped for lunch at Thompson’s Falls and then drove through Lake Nakuru National Park. This is a lake surrounded by pink - a fifty yard wide band of flamingoes, which were very spectacular. On the lake’s shores lived a herd of rhinocerous.

 After a night at a hotel we arrived at the Masai Mara Game Reserve, where we saw the usual animals, but most particularly lions. A gruesome scene was a lion eating a giraffe, and others eating a gnu. We also saw the remains of a dead elephant, with just the tail end and jaws remaining.

 Back in Niarobi after leaving my group I arranged for a car and driver to show me around for a couple of days.  East Africa is of course considered "the cradle of mankind" - it is believed that humans originated here and spread across the World. I have always been interested in this, so I was keen to make the day trip to Olorgesailie, where Louis and Mary Leakey made some important archaeological discoveries of ancient human remains in the 1940s. I was impressed by how hot, dusty and remote the site was. The Leakeys must have gone through lots of discomfort for the sake of their science!

 South India
Since I was ‘in the area’ I decided to make one last visit to India. I flew to Bombay and then Chennai, and with my Indian friends I flew to the very southern tip of India - Trivandrum, where we would commence our tour. I didn’t want to make the tedious drive from Chennai to Trivandrum, but this is what our driver from Chennai did - he drove our car down, and met us there. He then drove us around for the entire trip.

 We drove north up the west coast through some familiar territory that we saw in more detail. We did the boat cruise from Kollam to Alleppy.  From Kochi we headed inland through the scenic tea growing areas of Kodaikanal, Conoor, and Ootacamund.

 I played golf at Ooty. I had played there two years earlier, and they remembered me! This time they found some left-handed clubs to lend me (even though I am right handed I play golf as a lefty). I had the same caddy and had an enjoyable round.

After a visit to Mysore we went to Bangalore, where I met an aquarium keeper with whom I had been corresponding in connection with my website Aquarticles.com.  His name was Raj Kumar, and I wrote articles about him and his friends in the People Section, at: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/people/norfolk_rajkumar.html.

 Five visits to India were enough, but to me India remains very much the most interesting and exotic country I have ever visited. Driving through the towns and villages there is always something fascinating to observe, and the countryside has many beautiful and scenic areas.

 Most people I have spoken to about India are put off by the very evident filth and squalor everywhere, but I would point out that when driving through a town perhaps 90% of the people you see are men - women stay indoors. Wouldn’t our towns be more untidy if they were left just to the men?!! The people themselves however, keep very clean, even when they are dressed in rags (they wash in the rivers and ponds).

 India is very easy to get around because English is widely spoken. Children learn English at school; government, banking, big business, universities and computer work are all conducted in English, and the educated classes speak English at home.

 India is very inexpensive:
- We stayed in 3 star hotels mostly, which were clean and comfortable, and they averaged $30/night for two beds and a hide-a-bed.
- Meals in hotel restaurants or other good restaurants cost about $2.50 (Canadian) for a vegetarian main course (my friends were Hindu vegetarians), and $3.50 for a meal with meat. I didn’t have to eat curries all the time - most high class restaurants have a Western menu.
- Car rental for a day, including driver and fuel (many taxis are diesel), was about $35/day. (Subject to bargaining).

 One bad thing about India is the roads and the driving. India is apparently the second worst country in the World for traffic accidents, after Ethiopia! - and evidence of this is everywhere. All cars have dents in them, and car and truck wrecks are often seen by the side of the road. Rules of the road are not obeyed - if the light is red but you think you can get through, you go for it. Driving in a town means dodging oncoming traffic, easing past buffalo carts and bicycles, and avoiding sacred cows.

 We were once driving in a town unfamiliar to our driver when I noticed all the traffic was coming in one direction - towards us. The cars, bicycles and carts were simply dodging us on one side or the other. I asked my driver “Isn’t this one way?” - he made a quick U-Turn! None of the oncoming cars had sounded their horn or flashed their lights, and this shows another facet of the Indian character. They must have all thought we had a reason for driving the wrong way, and let us do it without complaining.

 I would never drive a car in India. It takes a great deal of skill to get around efficiently and safely. I always felt uneasy when in a car. For long distances I preferred 1^st Class train, or ‘sleeper’ bus, which are both comfortable and cheap.

 I was lucky to have my two Indian friends accompany me. To con-men and hustlers I was already “taken”, and they shooed away beggars. Bargaining for taxis, tourist souvenirs, and anything at roadside stands is normal, so I always had my friends do the bargaining.

 Indian people are very friendly and it is easy to talk to people. They were always interested to hear where I had come from and where I was going.  

Winter 2002-3

New Zealand and Western Samoa

 With Afghanistan and Iraq in turmoil I decided to keep well away from the Muslim world, and make another trip to New Zealand, with my golfing friend Pete.

 We landed in Christchurch and drove the entire perimeter of the South Island, including a boat trip up Milford Sound, which I hadn’t done before.

 We took our golf clubs and played every other day, including Christmas Day, when there was one lonely local on the course who played with us and showed us around.

 Back in Christchurch we flew up to Auckland and spent a few days there. I particularly wanted to play the Waitangi golf course again, where I had played before, in 1991.

 Western Samoa

I like to visit the Pacific Islands, so on the way home we stopped off at Western Samoa for a week. The most famous sight there is Robert Louis Stevenson’s house - he lived in Western Samoa for health reasons. 

We even played golf there, on a very lush tropical course. Pete had some bad luck - I was driving our cart down a steep rocky path when our caddy jumped onto the back. This caused the cart to swerve into a rock, and Pete went flying through the (open) windscreen. This shook him up a bit, so we drove him to the clubhouse to recuperate and I finished the round with the caddy.

 Pete had some more bad luck. He was out on the beach one night near our hotel at about midnight when some guys aggressively asked him for money. They didn’t exactly mug him. but they made him run back to the hotel pretty fast!

 Winter 2003

Jamaica and Cuba

 This was my first visit to the Caribbean. I flew again with my golfing friend Pete to Montego Bay, one of the resort towns on the north coast of Jamaica. But we didn’t stay at a resort. My travel agent arranged for a couple of nights at a local hotel to get our bearings, and then we set off to explore the island. We travelled from place to place by taxi since Jamaica is not considered a safe place to drive (although I didn’t notice any particular problem).

 We circled the whole island and saw some beautiful places, such as the Blue Lagoon, where Brooke Shields made that movie. We visited some ‘Great Houses’ (old British plantation mansions)

 The north coast of Jamaica is full of package tourists - people who just want to laze on a beach or in a bar, and have a ‘holiday.’ The local population is intent on ‘ripping them off’ by overcharging for everything. Our taxis, for one way trips of about half a day, cost about US$120-180. We may not have bargained skillfully enough, but this is far removed from the Indian rate of about $US $35.

 An account of my Jamaica visit can be seen on my website Aquarticles.com, at: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/travel/Norfolk_Jamaica_Tour.html

 Cuba

Pete had to go home, but I wanted to see another island, so went across to Cuba. I stayed in a very comfortable hotel in Havana, and from there took three bus tours: a two day tour east, a one day tour west, and a tour of old Havana.

I also visited the national aquarium and wrote an article about it at:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/travel/Norfolk_CubaNatAqua.html

I met a professional aquarist who worked at the aquarium, named Orlando Olachea. He liked my article and translated it into Spanish for South Americans. The Spanish version gets a lot of hits on my website.

 Ordinary Cubans are discouraged from approaching foreigners, so I found them a bit reserved, unlike in other countries where a “rich foreigner” is approached by all and sundry trying to get money or sell something.

 Cubans do very well considering their handicap - a ban on trade with the US, which would otherwise be their biggest trading partner. Americans themselves are not allowed to visit Cuba as tourists, but Cuba makes up the loss with lots of Canadian, South American and European tourists. Cost of everything is very reasonable, in contrast to Jamaica.

 Cubans get all their basic necessities - housing, food, utilities - supplied by the government, plus a modest spending allowance of US$20/month. To get more income they have to be corrupt. If one works in a factory for instance, one steals from the factory and sells the product on the black market. Everyone does it, or should I say has to do it, so it is looked on benignly.

 The most sought after jobs are those in the tourist sector. Tips are officially not allowed, but the workers rely on them.

 The Cuban system is alien to us, but seems to work quite well. There are no beggars or obviously poor people, and everyone is clean and nicely dressed. The houses are scruffy on the outside (perhaps the government is responsible for maintenance?), but nice on the inside. If one shows obvious signs of wealth one must be doing something illegal, so everything is hidden and kept secret.

 August 2004

The Yukon

I had always wanted to visit the far North of Canada, so in August  2004 I flew with a friend to Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory. The friend was Antony Bruce, a native Indian whose ancestors had come from that area.

 We rented a car and drove to Dawson City, the old gold rush/gold mining town. We played golf there at “Top o’ the World Golf Club,” which claims to be the most northerly golf club in the world.

 On the 400 mile drive back to Whitehorse I fell asleep at the wheel and woke up to find us bouncing off the road at 100km/h. Luckily there were no posts or trees to hit, and we stopped safely.  Unfortunately the car was written off, but this was covered by my Visa insurance. I simply had to sign a form and heard nothing more about it. The insurance people even thanked me for bringing more business to the Yukon.

We had intended to drive to Skagway, Alaska, the next day, but the accident put paid to this and we returned home early.

 Winter 2004-5

China

 My Indian friend Mani went to China to work in a relative’s restaurant near Hong Kong, and all year he telephoned and e-mailed to say that I should go there. I thought it a good idea, since I had always been fascinated with that country, which had been on Russia’s side during the Cold War, and was only opened to tourists in the early ‘90s.

 I had my travel agent, through an operator in Hong Kong, arrange a privatly guided tour for us. We were to visit four areas, and at each place would be met at the airport by a professional guide with a car and driver. We were to be guided around all the sights, and I added an extra - that we would visit the cities’ public aquariums and some aquarium shops. I wanted to write a series of articles for my website Aquarticles.com.

 I met up with Mani in Hong Kong and we flew to Beijing, where we were taken to the Great Wall and visited Tianenmen Square, the Forbidden City (Emperors’ Palace), and other sights. It was winter in China, so it was cold and snowy most of the time.

 Beijing’s new public aquarium is very impressive. I have seen lists of the World’s top ten public aquariums. This one must now rate high in the list.

From Beijing, my friend and I travelled south on the overnight 'soft sleeper' express train to Xi'an, a city in the very centre of China. We had a compartment to ourselves since it was off-season, and the train was comfortable and fast. The bedding was new and fresh, and each bunk had its own TV with headphones. There was even a vase of flowers on the table, and the ride was so smooth the vase didn't move or fall over. It was much more relaxing than flying, which would have taken a whole uncomfortable day with lots of security hassles and waiting around.

Near Xi’an in 1974 when digging a well, a farmer made what some people consider the major archaeological find of the 20th Century (anyone for King Tut?). He discovered a 2200 year old underground vault that contained thousands of life-sized figures and their horses in battle formation - an 'army of terracotta warriors.' I well remember the publicity this received at the time, and being amazed by the stories and photos in National Geographic Magazine. At last I was to see them!

I wasn’t disappointed. The warriors are housed where they were found (they are still being excavated) in three huge buildings. There was also a documentary 'Circle Vision' movie that showed battles being fought, the death of the Emperor, the making of the terracotta army, its vandalising by an invading army shortly afterwards, and then its rediscovery after being forgotten for 2200 years. The movie had thousands of extras, and no commentary - just stirring sound effects and music so that everyone could enjoy it.

From Xi’an we flew south to Guilin, where a cruise down the Li River has been called "perhaps the transcendant tourist experience of all China." The Li River passes through some unusual hill formations, called karst, which were created when the soft limestone was cataclysmically lifted, then flooded by the sea, and then lifted again. We spent a day drifting down the river in a paddle cruiser, and also saw some amazing cave formations. We also visited the brand new public aquarium, which was very nicely designed and one of the most agreeable I have seen.

We then flew east to Shanghai , where at last the weather was warmer.

Shanghai was always a port, but it really came into prominence after the first Opium War in 1842, when British gunboats forced its surrender as one of five ports open to foreign trade. Foreigners, particularly British, Americans, French and Germans moved in and built impressive buildings along the waterfront and some residential districts behind, which are still there. It became the 'whore of the Orient', where fortunes were made and lost, and was the home of swindlers, gamblers, tycoons, dandies, entertainers and missionaries. My guide ('Kevin') was amused when I told him of the English verb (popular in the 19th Century) 'to shanghai,' which means 'to kidnap, usually by drugging, for service aboard ship' or 'to induce another to do something through force or underhanded methods.'

The old European ‘Bund’ is still there, but opposite, in an area that used to be boggy farmland, is Pudong a city that I could only compare to those seen in space comics.

Only photos can do it justice.

The parts of China that I saw are developing at breakneck speed. There are new highways, trains, airports, bridges, buildings, factories and public facilities going up everywhere. The economy is expanding at a very much faster rate than those of the developed world. I thought it must have been like this in Britain during the Industrial Revolution 200 years or so ago.

China has a one-party system of government that is often criticised as 'non-democratic.' They have definitely made some big mistakes in the past with their Communist experiments (although the Chinese still revere Mao, saying he was '70% right and 30% wrong'), but ideas have changed now, and as long as the leaders have the best interests of the country in mind, they have the capability of getting things done fast. I would compare China's leadership to that of a private company, where the 'boss' can make decisions for the good of the company as a whole, without begging permission from committeees or from every individual worker. In the democratic West we may take years to decide whether a bridge or subway should be built, during which time politicians come and go and policies change - whereas in China they would have half a dozen finished by then! Our politicians tend to make popular decisions for the sake of their own short term interests in getting re-elected, whereas China's one-party system allows for unpopular projects that are expected to pay off in the long run. Could China's system be more appropriate for a developing economy than our 'democratic' model that we are trying to impose on the rest of the world? What will we think in twenty or thirty years' time when China may well catch up and overtake us?

From Shanghai we flew to Hong Kong where we spent a few days before Mani left for his job and I flew home.

 

I have been to the places marked by red dots on this map