Around the Planet

It is August, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is well underway. Also known simply as “The Edinburgh Festival”, this event transforms the Scottish capital into a city packed with music, art and performance, filling the streets, pubs, clubs and theatres with eager festival-goers and colorful performers for a full three weeks. This year the festival runs from 3rd-25th August, with some 247 different venues, and more than two thousand different shows on offer – which is a staggering amount of choice. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is one of the largest festivals of its kind in the world, attracting performers from all across the globe.
The festival includes comedy, dance, music, exhibitions, opera, theatre and children’s events. This year we have Paul Hyu who is “Chinese Elvis – The King from Beijing”, an Israeli drag act, “Gender Pretenders”, and young theatre company, The Pantaloons, who are putting on a free performance of “The Taming of the Shrew”. English stand-up comedian and musician Bill Bailey will be performing “Tinselworm”, and all the way from South Africa is the Soweto Gospel Choir with their combination of gospel, spiritual music and reggae. Also featured at the festival is the thrilling and hilarious Circus Oz – miss them at your peril, they are one of the must-sees of the Festival, and their acrobatic and performance skills will made your jaw drop.
So what really is the difference between The Edinburgh Festival and The Fringe? Well, The Edinburgh Festival proper started in 1947, and some enterprising theatrical companies decided to “gatecrash” the official festival by putting on their own events alongside it. Thus The Festival Fringe was born, and from small beginnings, it has now grown to huge proportions, engulfing the official festival itself, while retaining the impish impetuousness of its origins.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a riot of culture and fun, and a great way to spend the best part of August.

The opening ceremony of the Olympics took my breath away, and made me dearly wish I was in Beijing to see it first hand. The Chinese government have certainly achieved what they set out to do, which was to impress the world.

In the run-up to the opening ceremony there were concerns about many things on a practical level, such as the air quality, and the cleanliness of the sea. But probably most of all, the concern was about human rights in China, and about Tibet, and other areas that seek autonomy, and yet find themselves under Chinese jurisdiction. It certainly seems that the hosting of the Olympics in China has served to shine a spotlight on the Chinese government, and issues related to human rights.

Banners in Beijing say, “”Participate in the Olympics, Enjoy the Fun”, which is ironical for a lot of Chinese, such as itinerant workers, and petitioners (people who wish to petition the government about their problems and concerns), who are finding that their presence at this time is something of an embarrassment to the regime. Migrant workers have been encouraged to leave town until the foreign journalists and visitors have departed. Petitioners have been moved on to other areas. On a slightly more positive note, BBC reporters investigating such issues are finding that, while the gaze of the world is turned towards the Olympics, they are not being harassed so severely by the Chinese police.

Although the Olympics are taking place in an atmosphere of great enthusiasm and optimism, the problems are never far away. One young woman was thrown out for unfurling the Tibetan flag at an event.

A new report from Amnesty International accuses the Chinese authorities of breaking their promises to improve the country’s human rights situation, suggesting that it has betrayed the core values of the Olympics. The report evaluates the performance of the Chinese authorities in four areas related to the core Olympic values of “universal fundamental ethical principles” and “human dignity”, including persecution of human rights activists, detention without trial, censorship and the death penalty. It is to be hoped that ordinary Chinese people will one day be able to create a more democratic society, and that wish doesn’t just apply to China, but probably to most corners of the globe as well.

To anybody that is keen on travelling and exploring other cultures, one of the great things to see about the opening ceremony was the sheer number of countries that there are on the planet, some small countries with as few as four athletes, yet still proud and enthusiastic.

Wishing Good Luck in the Olympics to all athletes, of all nationalities from Around the Planet!

It was great to see Nelson Mandela in London at the end of June for his 90th birthday celebrations, with a concert in London’s Hyde Park, which raised funds for his AIDS/HIV charity, 46664. Some 50,000 people turned up to see performers such as Amy Winehouse and Queen.

In case you are wondering why Mr Mandela’s charity is named 46664, this was his prisoner number when he was on the infamous Robben Island. Being convicted at the Rivonia Trials in 1964, he became prisoner number 466/64, and spent 27 years behind bars for taking a stand against South Africa’s evil apartheid regime.

Here in the UK, as part of a celebration of Nelson Mandela’s birthday, a few weeks ago BBC4 did a special night of TV programmes about South Africa, and about the struggle. One of the programmes I managed to see was “Storyville - Sophiatown Surviving Apartheid”, followed by one about Robben Island, “Voices from the Island”.

“Sophiatown Surviving Apartheid” was a documentary, liberally sprinkled with some fine examples of South African jazz music, documenting the life of Sophiatown, a neighbourhood of Johannesburg, which became renowned for its multiculturalism in the midst of the worst years of the apartheid regime. Throughout the forties and fifties Sophiatown was home to musicians, artists, and writers, becoming a haven for integrationist politics. Sophiatown was the place where Nelson Mandela spent his formative years, and other former notable residents include Trevor Huddleston and Hugh Masekela. The documentary includes interviews with some of Sophiatown’s foremost residents, as well as archive footage. Sophiatown’s very presence aggravated the apartheid government, who could not bear to see this oasis of tolerance flowering in the midst of whites-only suburbs. And so in 1955 2,000 policemen forcibly removed the families of Sophiatown to Soweto. Sophiatown was then flattened, and a whites-only suburb named Triomf built in its place. The documentary shows tragic footage of the buildings of Sophiatown being torn down by bulldozers.

The name Sophiatown was officially restored in 2006. If you travel to Johannesburg, be sure to pay Sophiatown a visit, and see the fabulous murals which depict the life of the suburb in those days of survival.

Many of those who struggled against apartheid ended up as political prisoners on Robben Island, located in Table Bay, some seven kilometres off the coast of Capetown Bay. “Voices from the Island” is a thoughtful documentary, where Nelson Mandela and his fellow ex-prisoners recall their incarceration on the infamous island. For three decades Robben Island housed not only political prisoners, but also regular convicts, a leper community, and the mentally ill. On the island, enduring deprivation, Nelson Mandela and his fellow political prisoners devised strategies for survival, and their lives became transformed as a new South Africa began to take shape.

Those who have served time at the prison on Robben Island refer to it simply as “the island”, and one former political prisoner related to me stories of his time there, and how he and his comrades survived. He told me how he and his fellow prisoners would volunteer for light maintenance work on the island. Once outside the prison, some of them would get the guards talking about anything, on any subject that wasn’t to do with politics, one popular topic being football. Once the guards were thus occupied, others would disappear, and go fishing to supplement the meagre Robben Island diet, while others would trawl through any garbage they could find for newspapers. Getting hold of newspapers was key - once paper was found, translations would be done as necessary, and the news passed around to all the prisoners.

Robben Island is now a musuem, so if you find yourself in Capetown, don’t forget to visit Robben Island Museum, and to remember those who fought for freedom.

Summer is supposed to be here, but there is a bit too much rain for my liking, so what could be better than thinking about a change of scene? Rain or shine, in a city there is so much to do, and a rather neat site I have found offering short breaks is directline-citybreaks, who do some cool escapes to some really exciting cities.

You can enjoy the canals and bridges of Amsterdam, take in the hot nightlife of Barcelona, sip a Guinness in Dublin, listen to bagpipes in Edinburgh, stroll around the fabulous art museums of Madrid, have a romantic time in Paris, glide through Venice on a gondola, view ancient Roman sights with one of the many Rome city breaks, or choose from many other popular city break destinations such as Brussels, Budapest, or Prague. And if you feel like going slightly more off the beaten track, why not try the cool Scandinavian sophistication of Stockholm, the year-round warmth of Singapore, or the buzzing streets and fabulous temples of Bangkok?

A couple of minutes browsing and I found three nights bed and breakfast in Prague at the Quality Hotel, for a mere £229 per person including flights from Gatwick. Three nights bed and breakfast at the Artemis in Amsterdam came in at £324 per person, including flights from Stansted.

Regional UK airports are available as well, and some breaks can be done by the Eurostar.

Not only are there great offers, but the site is a mine of information about the cities themselves, including a comprehensive set of city guides, which give general information on a city, how to get around, and things to do. This makes the site a real one-stop shop, with all the information you need, along with booking at a couple of mouse clicks.

directline-citybreaks is certainly a site I will be coming back to.

If you are looking for a half-board package and considering Turkey, you may find that most of the deals are listed as bed and breakfast holidays. Fear not! Most of the Turkish hotels allow you to upgrade to half-board basis, and this can be done in advance, with a few mouse clicks.

It tends to be assumed that, when booking a holiday to Turkey, people have a preference for bed and breakfast basis, due to the high number of top quality eateries found in most resorts, and therefore the packages are mostly advertised on that basis. However the hotels themselves do stunningly good meals, and you can cut the cost of your holiday in Turkey dramatically by booking half board in advance. This usually costs around £6 per evening meal per person, added onto the overall package cost, which represents exceptional value for money. For this mere six quid you get the traditional Turkish all-you-can-eat meze, which is a range of fresh and healthful salads, including hummus, green salads, carrot salad, cheese, egg, aubergine salad, bread, and so on. You will easily find that this is a meal in itself, and you have to be careful to save room for the main course! The main is usually a meat or fish dish, served with rice or potatoes, and then you have a delicious Turkish dessert, such as baklava made from pastry and pistachio nuts.

Going half-board means that your meals are sorted already, (with the huge breakfasts and dinners you don’t really need a lunch), allowing you to keep your holiday well within budget, and you are not spending half the night trying to decide where to eat. However, you can still have the odd evening meal out, if you feel like it. The downside might be if you are not keen on the hotel food - but to be honest, I have yet to come across a Turkish hotel where I did not like the food! And I have stayed in a few of them. I find that the hotels have the resources to lay on a really great spread - they each have their own resident chefs, most of whom make bread and sweets on site as well.

And what’s my current top tip in terms of a package to Turkey? If you happen to be in the north of England, flying from Doncaster-Sheffield Airport, then one of the best deals around at the moment is offered by Thomson Holidays, two weeks at the Oykun Hotel in Calis Beach, on Turkey’s Lycian coast, on a bed and breakfast basis, for £358 per person. When you have added in supplements, in-flight meals, etc, this comes to a staggering £744 for two people, not including insurance. Make it half board, and it comes in at £912 for two people, for two weeks, which I think is pretty good value for money.

This is definitely the hot deal that I would go for at the moment. I have stayed in the Oykun, and found it to be an excellent family run three star hotel. It has the benefit of two swimming pools, plus plenty of areas to sit in either the shade or the sun. It has a cool and comfortable café/bar area that is open most of the time. It’s also brilliant to have a pool table, where I took the opportunity to brush up my game, and even beat my partner who thinks he is pretty hot at pool. The hotel even has a bowling green! The Oykun is about a ten minute walk to the sea - up the road, over the river, and there you are on the promenade of Calis Beach.

The only glitch about the Oykun which we found was that you can’t adjust the temperature of the air conditioning yourself - you have to get the staff to come and do it, so this meant a couple of nights sleeping with the cooler set too low, which necessitated getting in and out of bed like a jack-in-the-box to turn it on and off.

The Oykun is owned and run by a very friendly and professional couple and their son, and the staff are a really kind and helpful bunch too.

If you take the same holiday from a London airport, it is about £100 per person more expensive! Supply and demand, I guess.

Calis Beach is just a ten minute dolmus ride away from Fethiye, with its fabulous shops and market, and from Fethiye it is just a short hop to the mountain resort of Ovacik, lively Hisaronu, the seaside resort of Olu Deniz, with its blue lagoon, or the exciting ghost town of Kayakoy, with Bohemian shops and boutique cafés about its fringes.

Anyway, I hope that the credit crunch is not dealing to badly with your holiday budget - Good Luck in your search for great deals this summer!

Coming out of Birmingham on the 35 or the 50 bus, you go out through Moseley, then through Moseley Village, (which is rather Bohemian and lively, and worth a visit in its own right), before coming into Kings Heath. Kings Heath was once a village, which slowly got swallowed up by the expanding conurbation of Birmingham. Residents who have lived in Kings Heath a long time still talk about “going into the village”, although nowadays, Kings Heath is a fairly typical suburb. However, It does have one or two odd corners that are worth looking at if you happen to be in the area.

On the corner of York Road and High Street you have the fine Victorian pub, the Hare and Hounds, which was where British reggae band UB40 played their first ever gig in 1979. There is still live music here, such as Brum indie rock bands The Twang, and Editors.

Going down York Road you will find a number of small cafes, including the York Café, and the Christian-run Cornerstone Café where you can get a good latte.

Hungry? York Road has plenty of restaurants doing tasty food, such as Byzantium, a rather neat little tapas restaurant, where you can get not just Spanish-style tapas, but also offerings of a more eastern nature, such as tabbouleh, hummus, taramasalata, and delicious kebab-style dishes.

York Road also has Kings Indian Dining, regarded by the Curry Club as one of the top balti restaurants in the country.

Rather impressive also is the Kitchen Garden Cafe, which is a café, a deli, a restaurant, and an organic garden shop - where you can buy plants, garden accessories, books, toys and various other stuff. This is a really pleasant place to while away a few hours sipping coffee, or eating something good from the deli, while sitting out in their lovely walled garden, surrounded by plants and interesting garden decorations.

Moving away from food, another interesting place to take a look at on York Road is vintage clothing store Top Banana, which has a fine array of fifties, sixties and seventies classic Americana, from Hawaiian shirts to mini-dresses. from colourful sneakers to sleek leather jackets.

Further up the High Street, and on your right you will find the wide open spaces of Kings Heath Park, with its pond complete with fountains, its gorgeous flowers, and people on skates.

Kings Heath still retains much of its village character, while at the same time having all the amenities that Birmingham has to offer.

Probably well off the tourist trail is the industrial city of Birmingham in the Midlands, which is affectionately known simply as “Brum”, and is a thriving multicultural metropolis.

Birmingham started out as a small Anglo-Saxon farming village dating back to the 7th century, and it is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. By the 12th century it had become a market town, and the market area was known as the Bull Ring, which is now a well-known central part of the city. With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham was already known for its gun making, and from then it grew rapidly into a major industrial center, earning it the title of “the workshop of the world”. It also became known for its jewellery making. Birmingham still has the feel of its gritty industrial past, and in many ways may not be as twee or picturesque as some English cities. But Birmingham is now on a program of urban regeneration, with many new and eye-catching buildings springing up, such as the Future Systems’ Selfridges building.

Birmingham has two universities: the older University of Birmingham, founded in 1900, which provides a full range of academic subjects; and Aston University, founded in 1966, which has more of an industrial focus, reflecting the nature of the city. The presence of two universities in the city means that Birmingham has a lively student social scene, with clubs such as Snobs for indie, rock and retro sounds, and The Works providing house and garage music.

On the cultural side, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has a fine collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and there is a Museum of the Jewellery Quarter which was a former jewellery workshop.

If you are looking for somewhere to eat in Birmingham, then I can definitely recommend the Rajdoot Tandoori on George Street, where I have enjoyed an excellent meal of authentic North Indian cuisine. It is also recommended by Egon Ronay. The Rajdoot serves lean poultry and meat soaked in lovely spices and sauces, as well as spicy salads with plenty of coriander leaf, and vegetable dishes such as brinjal bajee, (aubergine/egg plant). They also serve the renowned Indian Kingfisher beer. The Rajdoot is a little on the expensive side, but stands well above most high street Indian restaurants in terms of quality, service, decor and ambience.

Birmingham may be a little off the usual tourist track, but it is full of pleasant surprises and well worth a look.

In my next post we will take a peek at Birmingham suburb Kings Heath.

As well as an Introduction to the Trans-Siberian Railway, I have already discussed the Trans-Siberian railway proper, which is the Moscow-Vladivostok route, and the Trans-Mongolian alternative, more popular with the tourists, that goes via Mongolia to Beijing.

The third and final alternative for crossing Eurasia is the Trans-Manchurian route from Moscow to Beijing. This train, known as the Vostok, takes just over six days to cover the 5,623 mile route (8,986km) from Moscow to Beijing, and follows the same route as the Trans-Siberian as far as Tarskaya, from where it goes on to the Russian border town of Zabaikalsk, after which it crosses over into China, and continues on to the Chinese border town of Manzhouli. Crossing the Russia-China border takes the best part of a day, as they hoist the train and carriages up and change the bogies, (these are the frameworks of wheels, axles and suspension), so they fit the new track gauge. Taking photos at this time is not a good idea, unless you want to get into a load of trouble with the border police.

Having been adapted to the new gauge, the train then continues on to Beijing, passing through Harbin and Changchun.

You have the option of 2nd class compartments with four berths, known as kupe, or a 1st class compartment with only two berths, known as spalny vagon. The prices for this route are similar to those for the Trans-Mongolian route.

People who have taken this route report that the Chinese food is really good, but that the Russian food bears an uncanny similarity to English school dinners from way back when, making that border crossing even more significant!

With its fabulous architecture of Russian and European influence, Harbin is one of China’s most beautiful cities, and I think I would find it hard to go through this neck of the woods without making a stopover. Harbin is certainly an ideal place to break journey before continuing on to Beijing.

For a very frank account of travelling this route in wintertime see Last Train to Lhasa, which gives some very eye-opening descriptions of some of the characters one can meet on the train.

When considering your trans-Siberian adventure, and which of the three possible routes to take, you would be well advised to take a look at The Man in Seat Sixty-One … which is full of useful information about the journey, how to buy tickets, and so on, as well as a cornucopia of information about world train travel generally.

I have already talked about the Trans-Siberian Railway generally, and about what might be called the Trans-Siberian proper, which is the Moscow-Vladivostok route. However, a route which tends to be more popular with the tourists is the Trans-Mongolian. This route is the same as the Trans-Siberian as far as Ulan Ude, where it departs from the main Trans-Siberian line, going on to Ulan Bator, before crossing the Gobi Desert, and then going on to Beijing.

This route goes past the shores of Lake Baikal, giving the most stunning views to the passengers. If you want to spend longer on the shores of Lake Baikal, then get out at Irkutsk to do a bit of exploration. About one hour’s car drive away from Irkutsk is the popular lakeside town of Listvyanka, which has accommodation ranging from posh hotels to dorm rooms, as well as bed and breakfast with local people.

A number of tourists doing the journey choose to stop over in Ulan Bator for sightseeing, before finally travelling on to Beijing. Ulan Bator is a relatively plain city, but there are some good examples of interesting Mongolian architecture, such as the Gandan Khiid Monastery.

Some tour operators sell Trans-Mongolian packages with the option of stopping over en route to stay in traditional Mongolian tents, known as yurts, or camp by the shores of the lake.

People who have done the Ulan Bator-Beijing stretch of the journey in January say that the winter views are really magnificent, and the train warm and cosy. The Gobi Desert covered in snow is spectacular, and the train makes its way past massive herds of wintering gazelle and the occasional, isolated yurt, with wisps of smoke coming out of its chimney. Mongolia has a certain ethereal beauty in winter, and passing through this by train is quite magical.

Over the course of the journey, the restaurant car changes from Russian to Mongolian, and then to Chinese, providing a wonderful variety of food over the six days that it takes to make its way from west to east.

There are four-berth compartments available at either first class, or second class, as well as deluxe two-berth compartments with shared shower. Reports suggest that getting these slightly posher compartments are well worth the extra cost, and that they have very comfortable beds.

With prices ranging from £180 to £260, this is a really cheap way to get to China, and to have an adventure while doing it.

Beijing is a wonderful destination, with lots to see, and you are a mere overnight trainride away from the wonderfully fashionable metropolis of Shanghai. From Shanghai you can continue your journey by taking a ferry to Japan.

The Trans-Mongolian is considered by many to be one of the most enjoyable ways to cross Eurasia by land. It certainly seems to be a popular and well-loved route amongst aficionados - people who have done the Trans-Mongolian report that even though it is five to six days of sitting on a train, there is never a dull moment and always something to do. There is always plenty to see out of the window, interesting people to talk to, meals to be eaten, and beverages and alcoholic drinks to be had. The travellers get to know one another fairly quickly, aided by that informality and bonhomie so often found amongst international travellers. As a result, there is usually a bit of a party going on somewhere on the train each evening. If you can afford the time, I really can’t think of a better way to go from Europe to the Far East.

It’s hard to talk about jolly holidays when natural disaster has struck twice in quick succession, causing hardship and suffering for so many people in Burma, and now China.

On May 3rd Cyclone Nargis struck Burma, wreaking havoc for people in its path, especially for those living in flimsy houses made from straw and mud. In the wake of the cyclone the military junta has been accused of not getting aid to victims, and even of refusing help from other countries.

Burma isn’t the kind of place I really would have recommended to travellers or holidaymakers anyway. Back in the nineties in Japan, I went to a talk given at the regular meeting of a group known as Ningen no Kai, or “The Human Group”, (it maybe doesn’t translate that well). Anyway, Ningen no Kai used to organise talks on a range of human rights issues, meeting monthly in Osaka, and followed by a meal and a few beers in a nearby izakaya.

One month the talk was given by an American couple, who I’ll call Tom and Anne, (not their real names), who had crossed over into Burma from Thailand, avoiding ordinary border controls, to investigate first hand what was actually going on under the regime of the military junta. The story they told back then was pretty terrible. Since 1988 Burma has been run by The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which has systematically breached human rights, and which refuses to hand over power to the democratically elected party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for more than twelve years.

At the meeting in Osaka, Tom and Anne told us what life was like for ordinary people in Burma, and it made for pretty grim listening. On their last visit to Burma they were caught by the authorities, and told that if they ever returned they would be dead. To my knowledge they never went back. Probably wise. Tom and Anne, wherever you are, I remember your talk.

The last thing the people of Burma needed was a cyclone. And the additional tragedy is that the junta are not terribly willing to let in the much needed aid. However, I was glad to hear that local Burmese organisations, funded by Oxfam, are managing to provide some kind of assistance - repairing damaged wells, distributing rice, beans and oil, clean drinking water, plastic sheeting for shelters, and first aid kits.

Then on May 12, Eastern Sichuan was rocked by a mighty earthquake of 7.9 magnitude, one of the worst quakes that China has seen in a number of years. As I write many people are still trapped under rubble and we don’t know if they are alive or dead. Yet more people have been made homeless. Help is on its way from both official bodies and voluntary organisations such as Oxfam.

Let’s keep hoping for the people of Sichuan, and of Burma.