Travellers on Tour

I had a conversation with a friend last night, who when coming to the UK said he had to leave one bag at home in order to bring his guitar. Although they do not advertise it - most airlines will allow you to take you full baggage allowance and then give you one instrument or piece of sporting equipment for free (i.e. golf clubs, snowboards etc…).

This is a relief for a lot of people, but it definately makes sense for the airline to do it, because firstly most passengers are not going to have an extra piece and secondly they would get a lot of hassle from customers who wanted to take these things as extra.

Just remember if you are travelling by air with a guitar to loosen the strings so that you dont have a damaged guitar on arrival!

McDonald’s in Australia has some items that are not listed on their menu. You might want to call it McDonald’s hidden menu or secret menu.

One of the things on this hidden menu is the value meal that my wife and I consider to be McDonald’s best value meal. It is McDonald’s “5 Dollar Value Meal“.

The Five Dollar Value Meal consists of a cheeseburger, medium fries, medium drink and a choice of a sunday or apple pie dessert. We find it to be pretty much the perfect amount to fill you up, while giving you lot of sweet and savoury flavours in the meal.

When travelling on an aeroplane there are several different schools of thought when it comes to carry on (cabin) baggage. I used to be with the school of thought that I should pack as much as possible, to give me the possibility of taking more stuff with me. The reality is that I really did not use a lot of the things I thought I would.

One important thing that air travellers have to think about today that they did not have to 10 years ago is security and the fact that at nearly every international airport you are likely to be standing with your bags in a line for some time. This can add to the stress of travelling and can make the journey just seem a bit harder then it has to.

Here is a list of the things I recommend for people flying to take in their carry on. Read the rest »

If you fancy a holiday (or happen to be in that part of the world), where you can take in some culture, indulge in some history or relax on fantastic beaches - then you would be a fool to overlook Zanzibar.

Located a 2 - 3 hours ferry journey (or 30 minute flight) from Dar es Salam(Tanzania), Zanzibar is an Island bathed in sunshine that is becoming a bigger tourist attraction each passing year.
Stonetown is the capital city on the island - and from here you can get transport to anywhere. It is worth staying in Stonetown for a couple of nights to walk around the town - and see some of the history. It was a huge slave trading port and there are still some of the original trading buildings standing.  The architecture, language and culture of the east coast of Africa, but especially Zanzibar is largely influenced by the Arabs that colonized there - and Stonetown is a stark example of this.
If you are there in the evening it is worth heading down to the seafront and trying some food at the night markets. You can buy all sorts of seafood - but my personal favourite is the lobster that cost $1 for a tail.

If you want a bit of peaceful relaxation then my recommendation is the east coast of Zanaibar - when I stayed there I paid $10 a night (including breakfast and dinner), the beaches were calm and relaxing - the sun rises are breath taking.

If you want something a little more lively,  then head to the north west of Zanzibar where the resorts are aimed more at the younger crowd with restaurants on the beach and bars that are open until well after the sun goes down. During the day you play sports on the beach, go snorkelling or diving or rent a motorbike and see more of the area.

Zanzibar is a great place for young people and families with older children - it is not quite a child friendly resort island - but I am sure that it will get there one day!!  For some pictures of Zanzibar (a bit dated but still great) click here…

Having been fortunate enough to travel to several places in the world, it is becoming more and more obvious that it is becoming harder and harder to find places that are “untouched” by western influence. Obviously if you were willing to pay huge amounts of money then you could always go somewhere that few westerners have been. But in reality for the rest of us where can you go?

The South Pacific is always a good one, while many people have taken holidays in places like Fiji, Tonga, Australia and New Zealand - it is not so common to go to little islands like Nauru which is an Island nation once so rich they had their own airline and was one of the richest nations per capita, on earth, but now thanks to the mining that made them rich their island has nothing of value.

What about the Solomon Islands? An archipelago consisting of nearly 1000 islands with over 300 of them being habited. This truely is a place you can get lost. About 3 hours flight north east of Brisbane, Australia lies the capital of Honiara home to 30,000 or 40,000 people (depending on what you read). From there you can take flights out to regional areas of boats to just about any of the Islands. Flights always run a little off time - thanks to the relaxed time keeping ‘Island time’, it takes a little getting used to but even after several flights being weighed before entering the plane can be little disconcerting -  but they get you to the outer regions of the Solomon Islands.

If you want to see cultures relatively untouched by outside influences, then some of outer islands in the Western province are like a window to the past. Families living off food grown in their gardens, chickens and chlidren running around on the soft sand with the palm trees while others are out in their dug out canoes fishing to feed their families. Every now and then something will snap you out of it when someone mentions the result of a recent football game in England, or ask your opinion on a certain celebrity, but apart from the occasional jolt, the Solomon Islands represents the change to bliss isolation from a world travelling at thousands of miles an hour, to a world that has enough to get by and tomorrow’s problems will deal with themselves - we could all learn something from the Solomon Islanders.

Hong Kong airport - is a unique airport in that it is built on a man made island a little ways out of town from Hong Kong - but there are good rail and bus links, or if you prefer you can always take a taxi!

The last time I went through Hong Kong - I had the priviledge of spending 12 hours in the airport with my family. We were one of the only flights checking in at the new terminal. It is a spacious building with well laid out shops and restaurants. They also have a lounge that you can pay to use that includes shower, internet, lounger chairs and TV. There is also food and drink there - but you will have to cough up about $50 for 3 hours use.

Hong Kong airport are trying to market terminal 2 as a place where you can come even if you are not flying, but to come and shop and use the entertainment facilities as well. And to be honest if my wife had to drag me out somewhere to shop - I would not be too upset, there is plenty to do that does not involve looking around shops! There are some nice places to eat, a cinema showing the latest films and an arcade that has a huge variety of games from golf to football to shoot’em ups.

The only thing I thought was funny is that at 8pm the shops started closing in the terminal, and this is about the same time that the check-in desks open for the flights heading to Europe, which are the only flights that left from the terminal at that time (May).

All of these facilities are avaliable before you go through security to the departure lounge!

I had an interesting experience at security once we had checked in. My bag was X-rayed and then I was pulled aside to find something in it that had caused a stir. Once I opened the bag the security officer took out my deoderant - because it had 10ml more than I was allowed to take on flight. Then once we had nearly landed in London I was looking through the same bag and found a long medical syringe and needle that we had taken while travelling, that security had not taken off me. It makes you wonder about priorities if you can get on a flight with a needle but deoderant is considered a risk!!

Once you go through security and a short train journey you get to the departure lounge. It is a lot more cramped than the terminal building, and again there is a plethora of shops and restaurants  on 3 floors in a central area . Then as you walk out to the gates there is free internet access areas as well as child play areas to entertain the little ones and hopefully get them to burn off energy before the flight!!

All in all it is a great airport (airport of the year for 2007 according to Skytrax), and if you are flying through dont be worried about a couple of extra hours there - you can spend them easily at the airport.